Being a student is nice, but not easy when you have to earn money in parallel. However, the diversity of activities is also an advantage…
In October 1996, I started to study at the university. I had received the idea that the most important in the studies is to learn and enrich oneself. So I chose effortlessly areas that interested me more than others: geography, anthropology and history.
Before an exam
In order to follow these branches, I had to settle down in a city far from the one in which I spent my childhood. So I found myself in a different place, surrounded by unknown poeple and with new knowledge to study. This could be called “the discovery of an environment”… and I love it! To meet new people doesn’t scare me, it’s quite the opposite. My occasional shyness effectively doesn’t prevent me to love to integrate in a social environment that I do not know. What excites me is to observe the diversity of ways of living, thinking and seeing the world. Moreover, at this point in my life, it was synonymous of independence, and I must say that I have always been addicted to that feeling. So, I begun an adventure that seemed rather exiting.
During an exam
Photo stolen by Jenri 😉
However, every experience has always a weak point: To live, even in a very small room and eating very modestly, inevitably involves money, especially when your father earns just too much for you to be eligible for a studies scholarship, and that this same father does not give you enough to fill the pot…
So I needed to find a job! I had worked for five years before leaving for this new place, but I needed a job closer to my place of study. Not easy in times of economic crisis! But finally, if we want, we always manage to cope and overcome difficulties. So I did several different jobs, in parallel to the university. Overall, I kept about 60% of my time for studies. Exactly! This increases the duration of the studies, but I have gained an interesting advantage in having one foot in libraries and classrooms and another in the real world. I had a chance to complete the theoretical and intellectual openness offered by the university, by a fairly comprehensive overview of the practical world of work.
After an exam 😀
I’m now about to finish my practical work, that must be done individually. Hoping that all goes well, it should remain “only” one serie of history’s exams to finish the Master. Phew!
To be continued…
Mirabelle