late, as always

I was walking down the stairs from my office the other day, the center was quiet, the sun was shining outside, and it suddenly hit me.

I have a master’s degree.

I don’t think it has fully sunk in. That first week in June, with thesis deadline, graduation party, presentation and then me diving straight into this new project, flying back down to Burkina Faso to meet my new colleagues.

I didn’t have time to let the pieces fall into their new places. I still feel like a lost, confused student, trying to grasp all that knowledge that most of the time seems to be just out of reach.

But really, that’s not who I am anymore. I have a master’s degree. I’ve got a diploma as proof of my expertise. It’s just that I’ve chosen to continue on the path of knowledge creation, which makes me feel like I know nothing. Because it is true. I know nothing. But neither does anybody else, not with regards to the specific topic that we are studying. That’s what research is. But what I have are some of the tools necessary to create new knowledge. That’s what those five plus years at uni were for.

Imagine. I graduated when summer had barely started. It took for the leaves to live their whole lives, and then fall in their last blast of fiery glory, before I caught on.