I am going back to university - but not in the way you might expect.
My first instinct was to follow the well-trodden path and safety of further education in the form of a PhD. After all, it is what ambitious do when they reach a fork in life.
But when I mentioned this rather brilliant plan to Martin, he just laughed. He reminded me a conversation we had with a friend who spent years in finance and was now pursuing a masters. “Remember what you said when our friend was complaining about his finance assignments?” he asked. ‘You were adamant about being done with formal education.’ He was right - the thought of taking exams on accounting principles from professors who’ve never worked in the field made me cringe.
So, rather than a formal programme where I have to fork out tens of thousands of dollars, I’m self curating the curriculum to study what I want on my own schedule.
It took me four months of wrestling with reality to finally see what was right in front of me all along - I don’t need someone else’s curriculum. I need the freedom to explore my curiosities with enough structure to keep me moving forward.
So I’m designing my university experience. No expensive tuition fees, no fixed schedules and no arbitrary requirements I don’t agree with.
These subjects might seem disconnected, but they represent different facets of who I want to become: a builder, a bridge between cultures, and a clearer thinker. I’m excited to see how they’ll intersect and shape my journey over the coming year.