I had a review with my social worker today and had my wrist slapped for missing another day of community service. If I get strike three I’ll get a court summons, so I'm feeling quite aggravated that I will absolutely have to attend every other day, no excuses. I am, fortunately, half way through the order, less than 100 hours left.

The contrast is so surreal, it’s almost like stepping between two worlds. Monday to Friday I go to lectures, occasionally having drinks and rounds of pool with people who know nothing about me. Then, on Saturdays and Sundays I spend six hours each day doing mundane labour jobs in a run-down area with a squad of ever-changing criminals. Funnily enough, the squadies are far better company than the pretentious middle-class-wannabes at the university.

Last Sunday there was a new guy on the squad, but he was well known to the supervising officers and to a few of the regular guys. Everything about him was extreme, the way he spoke, the way he walked, the way he carried himself. He was so loud and full of life and so aggressive, so overly friendly while at the same time impressively intimidating. When he spoke to you, he always leaned in very close to your face. He never blinked when addressing you. As I watched him, I realised that he was the type of guy that the students I spend five days a week with would call ‘scum’. The type of guy that would be mocked for wearing a tracksuit and for being so obnoxiously loud. The type of ‘lowlife’ who boasted about all the drugs he dabbled in, of all the people he'd shanked. But I also realised, to my surprise, that I preferred his company to theirs. He was real. The students would turn their noses up at anyone who seemed ‘too common’. Not all of them of course, but a number come to mind.

This new perspective has me wondering if I'm wasting my time doing what I'm doing. I know it’s only for a few more years until I graduate and then everything will be different. Still, it’s always on my mind. These two worlds I live in. I've genuinely surprised myself with which one I feel more comfortable in.