Everyday People: Transcript with Graduate Nurse, Temi Adefeko
Coming to the end of the year, It's only right to look back and reflect on the challenges and experiences we had to face through people around us; most that we couldn't be in touch with for obvious reasons. Lockdown and inability to stay in touch has made it easy to feel like the only person going through alterations in life. 2020 had made a huge impact on every type of person. We will be exploring stories from different type of people; be it artist, business owner , college students and also person in the frontlines in the health department. Today, it's Trinity nursing graduate; Temi Adefeko. Temi was working in the frontlines while everyone kept safe. Her year has been a lot darker than most but she was able to get a different outlook on everything the year threw at her
How have you been in general since the whole Covid Lockdown?
Temi: I guess I'm okay. Sometimes I feel okay. But most of the time I’m in quite a state of sadness. Like I deep covid and get upset that its ruined a lot of plans and delayed a lot of things like my graduation for example. I’ve been planning that since I was in third year. Obviously with covid I can't celebrate it the way I wanted to celebrate it. With the restrictions I thought I’d get a venue, line up chairs socially distanced and screen my graduation. But with the extra restrictions that won't be going ahead, and it actually made me really sad. I'm someone who thrives on being busy. I have a lot to do, I’m running my game show, doing ACS Rumble. I always have, plans I'm always out, always doing something but obviously with covid its kind of forced me to slow down. I thought it was a bit of a blessing in disguise because I was actually getting a bit overwhelmed. But the type of person I am, I like being on the go, I like being able to do things. I’m someone that also thrives on contact with others and I love talking to people and being around people face to face so not being able to do that is kind of annoying. Other than that, I’ve been cool, I’m okay.
You mentioned “burnout” and Lockdown being a “blessing in disguise" can you tell us more about that?
So pre-covid I was doing my internship, I was working full time. I always also doing assignments, like I had my final literary review to do so I was always in the library, and then the week before Covid we had the finals for The Rumble Gameshow which is a gameshow between ACS’s in Ireland and we had qualification rounds to do. So we’d travel to places like limerick and Galway for the qualification rounds. We also had a lot of meetings so there was a lot of planning and rehearsals that went into it. I’m also in a female dance crew called BX3, so we were also rehearsing, so I was doing that and rehearsals and planning for ACS Rumble. And pre covid I had planning to do for the production of a Youth Concert.
With everything that was going on I was really feeling stressed and under pressure. My immune system broke down a few times especially after ACS Rumble, like I wouldn’t sleep the day before, and I'm so busy I don't get a moment to eat till its finished. So I was feeling a lot of stress and pressure. I was feeling like I’d spread myself a little too thin. So when lockdown came around I didn’t have all this stuff to do so I could just focus on college work. Yeah so Lockdown kind of took a lot off my plate and forced me to concentrate on my nursing degree.
What has your experience been like so far as a nurse on the front line during Covid?
It's nice to help people but obviously not harming yourself too in the process. It did take a lot out of all of us (nurses) I was really worried about going to work, and just being so conscious that you don't bring it home to you family. People say “that's what you signed up for”, but it’s not. I didn’t sign up to die.
I remember the last time we spoke you were talking about a kind of transition into more of a focus on creativity and that during Lockdown you realized it was an avenue you wanted to explore more. Tell us about that.
Basically, I’ve always been interested in acting and the arts and dancing but the one I really enjoyed as the acting. I enjoyed playing different characters and bring those characters to life. But I put that idea on the back burner because I thought it was a bit crazy of me to transition from nursing which is so practical and grounded to acting which is a bit airy-fairy. And I'm someone who likes to be stable and know what I’m doing. So just going into that field I was a bit scared. I've made a solid plan so I kind of feel more reassured so at the moment I'm taking one to one classes with the identity school of Acting in London. I hope to also be taking combat classes soon. Covid has made me realize that life is too short and in no time things can change so you might as well just do what you want and what makes you happy.