For a few weeks, I was working, attending a programme and finishing my Master's thesis. Excellent planning on my part.
Most of it somehow coexisted. Then came the last two days.
The day before the final pitch, I defended my Master's thesis. The next day, our team won the competition and graduated from the programme, while my Master's graduation was happening 300 km away.
A lot of people have asked me how I managed it.
That's a lie, of course. Nobody cares that much about someone else's calendar, but inventing an audience seems to be part of writing on LinkedIn.
I didn't manage all of it, anyway.
Before the programme, I worked extra hours so I could afford to disappear for a while. I still had to work on some days, though, and we had around an hour of meetings almost every day.
This is why there is a photo of me working from the back of a bus. It wasn't staged. I don't have that level of commitment to LinkedIn.
Turns out I still haven't figured out how to clone myself, so my father graduated in my place. He also collected my academic excellence award.
He's the one in the middle of the picture, in the first row. He got the diploma, the award and the graduation photo without doing the Master's. I think he did quite well.
I remember that, during other programmes, I worried much more about everything surrounding them. Work, university, whatever I had to do next. I was there, but part of me was always thinking about what was ahead.
This time, I decided to let go a bit and focus on whatever was happening that day. The people, the conversations, the process, and the team. I would worry about the next thing when it arrived.
It seems stupidly obvious. But I enjoyed it.
Not every name made it onto the back of the diploma, but I'm grateful for everyone who was part of those weeks.
I'm sure our paths will cross again. Sometimes by chance. Sometimes because I'll make sure it happens.
The front of the diploma says what I completed. The back reminds me who I shared it with.
