If you’re doing a project at college – you need money to make it happen, if you try and do without – the project ends up suffering. Well, I decided long ago, why should my work suffer because I have no money? So donning a black hooded balaclava and leather gloves (with a SWAG bag slung securely over my shoulder), I became a thief. It wasn’t intentional, it all happened by mistake – honest!
I was working on a ‘Design a Vespa’ competition at the time – there were three up for grabs, and I hated the bus. I really needed a zip disk to save my work, and I’d spent my last pennies on my bus pass, so it was either fail my project or steal a disk. So I took the initiative and took one from the shop – £6.50 they were!
I didn’t win and was soon back on public transport, but needless to say this incident opened up a whole can of worms. I shan’t go into detail for fear of incriminating myself any further, but in the future, if I needed something I’d take it … For creative purposes only of course. It’s not about being selfish, or greedy, it’s about self-sufficiency, about keeping your head above the water, about getting what you need to survive. It all boils down to one very important lesson, as my Nana always says “shy bairns get nowt!”
For want of a better phrase, if you don’t try, you’ll never know, and if you don’t try, then what’s the point?
Images and text from Gareth’s college project, Some of the Things I have Stolen
Safe + Sound: An Explanation
Click here to return to SOUL Edition 18
Padlock – When I moved into halls the biggest complaint I had was that our floor didn’t have a microwave, it took the entire winter term to get one. This padlock is from the table the microwave sits on, it is used to stop people from stealing the microwave, ironically…
Potpourri – Taken from the gents toilets of Liberty’s London. I felt my room needed a little sprucing up and as the toilets at Liberty’s smelled fine, I thought that I could use it more than they could.
A1 cutting board – it was the end of term at my last college and this big green cutting board was just staring at me. I just kept thinking I need it more than they do, so I rolled it up and left with it under my arm, it has been very useful.
Blue cotton shirt and name badge – this was taken as a reminder of a job I held last October. I worked at the Mitre Hotel, in Tooting London, the job interfered a great deal with college work, the shirt reminds me that i’m here in London to do my degree, and this should be my priority.