Ali Coyle | Contributing Writer
I am just your average third year student. I spend more time than I should getting coffee and ‘catching up with friends’ instead of studying. I occasionally fall asleep in the library. I check my emails and Facebook page in equal measure. I also commute to college from my hometown Dundalk in Co. Louth. That’s three hours a day, five days a week I spend on a bus.
These days, with rent in Dublin being 400 euro a month at the very least, a 55 euro weekly ticket and living at home, rent-free, seems like the sensible option. And while I am all for the sensible option, something in me yearns for the “real college experience”; being able to go on a night out and not have to find a friend to stay with for the night and not having to get up at 6.00am to make it in for a 9.00am lecture. Not to mention missing out on so many of the amazing events, classes and social activities that are happening when I’m snoring my head off on the bus home in the evening.
So as you can imagine, when I saw o2 advertising a student competition captioned ‘Free Rent for a Year’ my jaw hit the floor. Too good to be true? The rules: take a photo containing your o2 money card (a type of debit card you can top-up) and finalists will be picked on the basis of three qualities; humour, uniqueness and creativity. The finalist with the most ‘likes’ for their photo will win by Friday the 8th of November. Cue brain over-drive.
My first idea was getting my adorable ten month old niece involved, I wanted to put her sitting beside some blue cupcakes spelling the word o2 (subtle, I know) and chewing on the o2 money card. Strangely enough, babies don’t take direction well, so I mostly ended up with pictures of her with her foot in a cupcake, covered in blue icing- useful only for embarrassment purposes in years to come.
The finalists were posted several days after the competition had originally stated, leading to frantic thoughts of, ‘is it not going ahead?!’, ‘Did I miss the deadline?!’, ‘Did I just imagine this?’
My next idea proved to be a little more structured. As I’m studying science, I thought I could put a fun, geeky twist on the o2 money card symbolizing a whole pile of money. So after a few emails to a wonderfully accommodating lab technician, and a lot of chocolate-based bribery of my friends, I was ready for my second photo-shoot. Originally there were more than two people in the photograph, but the focus had to be on the money card and the transformation into a wad of money, which was mostly borrowed. I had some great help editing the photos, and the final product was sent the morning of the deadline- the editing took a long time. Then, with bated breath I clicked ‘send’.
I then spent the next few days periodically checking o2’s Facebook page to see if they had posted the winners. The finalists were posted several days after the competition had originally stated, leading to frantic thoughts of, ‘is it not going ahead?!’, ‘Did I miss the deadline?!’, ‘Did I just imagine this?’. Then, FINALLY when casually checking my emails last Friday, there it was, that shining email that told me I was in with a chance of giving commuting the old heave-ho. I quickly signed in on Facebook and checked the page. There it was! MY picture had made it! The two other finalists’ pictures were of an adorable King Charles holding the o2 money card in its mouth, and the other of some of the ‘living statues’ often found on Grafton Street holding the o2 card.
I was initially dismayed to see the contestant with the dog photo already had 160 likes, but I was determined to catch up! So calling, texting and sending messages on Facebook all ensued, and astonishingly, I caught up and surpassed her in less than a day! The next few days were torture. While the contestant with the statues photo seemed to be taking a back seat (I speculated whether he was waiting to steal back the competition at a later stage), the King Charles contestant and I yo-yoed back and forth every few hours. I have never been on Facebook so much in my life. Both my sister and boyfriend, as well as several of my friends were texting me daily with things like ‘you’re up twenty!’ or ‘how does she keep doing that?!’ and I currently type this with ragged, nervously chewed on fingers.
It has been an emotional rollercoaster of a week, afraid of wanting it so badly and yet refusing to give up on my dream when I have it in my grasp! But I have also experienced the amazing spirit of people who are determined to help. I have had friends post my picture up five times a day in the hope that it will generate just a few mores likes for me. People I haven’t spoken to in years, and people I have only met a handful of times are rooting for me, asking their friends to like and share for me, a practical stranger. I am so grateful to everyone that has helped me get my photo out there. It is because of them that my photo has now got over 1000 likes!
All that said, the competition isn’t over yet, with the King Charles contestant hot on my heels, this is not time to sit back and count my eggs. This is the time to rally up that last bit of support, to give the inspiring speech to my troops and hope they will march me to victory.
The competition ends tomorrow at noon, and if you are reading this, I implore you to like and share as you have never before! Remember, strength is in numbers.
