I thought I meant it when I said goodbye to higher education almost two years ago. In fact, that moment of sincere au revoir is still quite fresh in my mind. I handed in my undergraduate dissertation and thought ‘enough academia, let’s get on with real life.’ It turns out that ‘real life’ has split personalities – exhilarating and painfully boring, usually occurring in that order.

I admit the initial euphoria of earning your own money and grappling with so many different changes (except early morning alarm bells) is great but then the gear lowers to a repetition mode, which can be either comfortable or suffocating. For me it was the latter, and here I am saying – ‘Hello, I am back again.’

The atmosphere is welcoming as I settle back into an ever so familiar student’s routine. What is unsettling though is how intense and challenging a Masters course can be. It feels as if most of the readings have colluded and taken a vow to reveal their secret to no one but only those who have patience to navigate through their tricky maze.

So you stay put and keep reading with utter reverence for each word expecting something great but sadly the ending doesn’t quite reflect your optimism. There are also times when you can’t believe you read all that just to reach a conclusion so obvious. Yet despite these frustrating and inevitable encounters, you will eventually come across a reading or speech that completely alters you and your perspective (eureka!) and nothing appears the same again.

Now this whole process of thinking, discovering and transforming oneself is why university is worth coming back to. Not that the so called real i.e. economic life doesn’t let you think or learn – it does  and it even allows you to be creative as long as you can justify your thoughts within aims, objectives, actions and evaluation but isn’t that restrictive? I would say yes and so I look forward to reading, thinking and getting frustrated not for any deliverable but just because I want to.

P.S. The title of this post is inspired by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody – ‘no copyright infringement intended’ it’s just a great song!