February 7th 2024. Got up early enough today, 9:20 or so before it continued to slide to 10. Skipped breakfast, studied a bit and read some more photography stuff between 10 and 11:20. Made coffee, 24g and 400ml, five pours. Drove to school and my goodness the rain poured and poured and poured. Every other second or every two seconds even with my wipers on full speed my windshield would be totally blurry like a watercolor, not to mention the wind and rain puddles that slowed us down. But it surprisingly felt safer and less hectic and I noticed less people passing on the left side. Arrived at school in a flash, less cars in the indoors parking, backpack on, T90 over my shoulder, coffee in my left hand. Saw the rain continue to pour from the balcony of the parking lot and so I scampered off quick to photography class. Well I could run but I did speed walk and that was something and my left hand got quite cold, the hand holding my bottle. But I was thankful I wore my big brown jacket and not my puffy gray jacket or goodness forbid either of my hoodless white or gray sweatshirts. Photography class inside was nice and warm and I had arrived 7 or 8 minutes early. Professor Teng seemed to be doing well. Once class officially started we checked out the darkroom, got our developing supplies (thermometer, steel tank, steel reel, scissors, tray). Some of us went straight to the darkroom to load film. Others like myself stayed in the center room practicing loading with dummy film. I was not too confident, even after practicing with my eyes closed a couple times, but soon it was time for me to go and so I did. Since we only had a few darkrooms multiple people had to be in one room. Mr. Chai gave us a quick talk about loading film, and soon, a flick of the light switch later, we were off. I have to say that darkroom was incredibly dark. Darker than even my bedroom (and I sleep well with it dark). Immediately I felt a twinge of tiredness and confusion, but I picked up my canister and tried to pry the flat side off with the door cap opener. It did make some sounds but I wasn't sure I did anything until I felt the dent of that edge, and I just used my fingers to pry the endcap right off. Only a minute in the dark and I had begun to see some purple swirls and -- oh God the thermometer was glowing, even with it stood dial down. I was terrifically worried I would fog our film but it seemed dim enough that it was alright. As I tried to adjust to seeing with my fingers we began to talk and it was actually not as awkward as I thought. I do still have my communicative abilities, even if it is mostly describing what is literally at hand. Quickly I snipped off the film leader and tried to feel for the steel reel center hooks, but they felt so indistinct I had to check two or three times before I felt comfortable enough to get them on. But I got the sprocket holes on, and I spun the reel on the table to load the film. In maybe a minute or two I had actually reached the end of the film and just needed to cut off the spool, and that was that. Well I also placed my reel in the tank and closed it shut of course and see it down. I waited for my two group mates to finish and looked around the darkroom. As it turns out my glowing thermometer was not the only source of light. A little bit of light spilled from the door crack, maybe from the hallway or even the developing room, and there was an amber exit light of some kind at the top left of the door. Anyway we had finished, I turned on the lights, and how bright it was after 20 or 25 minutes in there! Steel reels and trays in tow we checked out the packed development room, then waited out in the center room for an open spot. 10 or so minutes in I got a spot and went off. The water was quite cold so development would take 8 minutes and 7 seconds. But I watched all the videos and took notes and had the printed instructions on me so I began to develop my film.
"[Growing up] is hard and nobody understands." // https://www.homestuck.com/story/2391