It’s been a rough week in magazine world - production is tight, pages are late, advertorials are rushed out and people’s tempers are short. Months on, I realised in this place, people work like cogs in a machine, each having a specific part in the bigger system. Clockwork, routine, monthly - the same thing. Those who like it here, stay, and those who don’t, leave. And it’s clear as day that the people who’ve stayed here four, five, six, ten years, that they never take any hiccup or altercation personally. Scoldings are to be had, voices and tempers are to be raised; or else who oils the machine and keeps it going?

But in this rough patch of a week comes a silver lining. My sales director bought tea-time snack because she remembered I liked cinnamon and bread. It’s one thing for someone to buy you something, but it’s another thing when they buy you something you like. My art director sent a simple word of encouragement over when she knew I had to face a difficult client. All these things, they needn’t have done so.

And I’m grateful for this cesspit because it makes it easier to spot the couple of gems that surface sometimes. We may be cogs in a machine because the industry requires us to be. But as it turns out, the people here become gems only because they let other people painfully scuff and buff them over time.