While Friday 13th has always had a cursed reputation, many can attribute the ‘misfortune’ to old wives’ tales. However, for KU student Oliwia Bojarska, mere superstition became a scary reality on the unluckiest day of the year.
She tells the River that the chaos all began before the day had even started: “I had woken up on Friday morning already shaken after a vivid nightmare the night before,” Bojarska said. “When I realised it was Friday the 13th, I knew the day was going to end badly, even before getting out of bed.”
Although trying to keep a positive attitude, there was just a strange feeling Bojarska had since the morning.
“Something just didn’t feel right,” she recalls. “It was almost like I was low on something, iron or even sugar, but I ate breakfast earlier that morning so I thought it couldn’t be that.”
Before she knew it, she describes “feeling dizzy” before “everything turned black”.
“All of a sudden I woke up on the floor of the classroom, with my teacher and all my classmates around me, asking if I was okay,” Bojarska said.
Her teacher called the nurse, and other students stepped in to help, and she was taken to the first aid room to recover. Although she wasn’t seriously hurt, Bojarska explains how she felt shaken to her core, as she had never fainted before. As for the reason behind her fainting, it still remains a mystery.
Despite the eventful morning she had, Bojarska was determined not to let the day win, so she then decided to join some of her friends at a local funfair after school, “to supposedly cheer me up, and make the day end on a high note.”
“I thought,’ what’s the worst that could happen now?’” she said.
Somewhere between the rides, the food stalls, and walking around with her friends, she went to reach into her pocket and disaster struck again. Her house keys had vanished.
“I was hyperventilating whilst emptying my bag, checking my pockets, and nothing. I even got all my friends to retrace our steps, and ask any staff member we saw to see if they had found them.”
With no spare key and her parents still at work, she was forced to make her way back home after her horrific day, with no way to get inside. After trying to go on a walk, and even attempting to get into the house through the back, she found herself stuck outside her house for nearly two hours.
“It was freezing and started getting dark,” Bojarska said. “I was sitting on the doorstep, refreshing my parents’ location, looking at the 15% battery left on my phone, watching the time crawl by. I’ve never been so desperate for my parents to come home.”
When her parents finally arrived home, she thought the nightmare of a day had finally came to an end, only to find out the heating had stopped working during the day.
“As If my day couldn’t get any worse. All I wanted was a warm shower before bed and I couldn’t even get that,” she says.
“If this had happened to someone else, I wouldn’t had believed them, but it was just one thing after another. Friday the 13th really came for me.”
