Nothing quite compares to the feeling of uploading your master’s dissertation to the submission portal of your university.

With this, my master’s degree in the UK ends. A year abroad ends. A year of speaking a foreign language day and night, in personal interaction and professional academia. A year of living in London – and what a city it is, ancient and maddening and incomparably breathtaking. 

Now, I am free from everything for the littlest while. Until the PhD begins. We all need a last break to recharge and focus before we continue our ascent. 

I can’t wait to see what else lies ahead in this world for me.

I always thought it was “do you hear the people sing / singing the song of angry French” and today, I have learned that I am – comment dis-tu? – un putain d’idiot.

September won’t change your soul. You will change your own soul, and she will stand behind you, touching her cold-wind-and-whispers fingers to the small of your back, speaking your true name.