Time and tide

I have been thinking a lot about time this week, not unusual for an archaeologist you might think, but quantifying, measuring and communicating time seems to have been a bit of a theme in a number of different ways. Whether it’s through the creation of web-based object maps and timelines for students, the planning of my research timetable for the next 12 months or the constant accrual of deadlines – time is indeed at the essence.

On Wednesday I graduated for the third (and probably final) time, bringing down the curtain on my years of being a student. Doing so in absentia had none of the chutzpah of the previous ceremonies, but even though attendance was never really an option from 4000miles away, I don’t feel like I missed out. Perhaps the time for dressing up and prancing across a stage is gone, or maybe graduating is just doesn’t seem as fun without a cohort to celebrate with.

Having formally completed my studies also feels very definitive. Something has passed that will not return. Time’s illusion conveniently takes away the anxiety, the seemingly endless mountains of work, the shear sweat and tears of achieving, leaving only the good times. For this I am grateful but it makes it all the easier to mourn the end of formal studentship. The loss of freedom to learn; to query and resolve problems; to be absorbed by your subject so totally that you carry it with you always like a scar. The loss of working like hell for intellectual not financial benefit.

And then I remember that all the things listed above still exist. A handshake and a certificate can’t end them, or maybe more pertinently,  shouldn’t end them. More so for me than others perhaps, I am blessed. And I am still learning.