02. 07. 2015
3 minuty čtení
During my taxi drive I couldn’t refrain from thinking about the oddest architectural feature of my college, the small ugly kitchens with no chairs, which served us as the only social areas. In those kitchens we spent hours and hours in long conversations. I will miss them. I am also going to miss out library, where the librarian was putting biscuits for us every Friday, the neighbouring farm, where we used to go for walks on a secret path, and the man in the bar, who always makes fun of everyone who wants to buy a drink. The three years of life in college were a memorable experience.
My departure was preceded by a grand graduation ceremony in the Senate House in the centre of town, where we marched with fluffy hoods, square hats and white bowties. Together with a number of my schoolmates I became a bachelor of arts. We had to kneels down and bow in front of our college master. Unlike last year, this year’s ceremony didn’t involve any faux pas during which somebody was awarded an incorrect degree and had to be awarded a different one in another ceremony. In addition, luckily, no student stepped on their gown this time, avoiding the embarrassing result of rolling down the stairs into the audience. The only glitch was that somebody got so excited during his hat throwing that his hat landed on the Senate House window and they had to take it down with a long pole.
The last days before my graduation were full of sitting on the grass, cycle rides, picnics, pub trips and many other restful activities. Finally I had a chance to see an opera on London, visit the ancient Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge, take part in singing on the river Cam and open some books that had been resting on my table for months. I also managed to attend one of the famous Cambridge ‘May Balls’ (which, paradoxically, take place in June). I chose perhaps the most renowned one: the Trinity College Ball. With a slight irony, but also enthusiasm, I dived into the wild mixture of music, dance, carousels, oysters and champagne. The tabloid newspaper Daily Mail didn’t fail our expectations and wrote their annual article about this ball, in which they like to portray hardworking, academic Cambridge students as snobbish, wasteful revellers. Everything was as it was supposed to be.
The exam results, which I had received three days before the ball, made me content. A good result helped me to secure a place for a Masters course for next year at the same university. By no means do I regret my transformation from a philosopher to a natural scientist during my Cambridge career: I broadened my horizons, I realised a lot of novel connections, I got a taste of a lab and brushed up my mathematical knowledge. However, I am now going to leave scientific questions and return to philosophical questions, which go hand-in-hand. The scientific method in combination with a philosophical scrutiny will hopefully help me to fulfil my lifelong goal: to understand the world. Fortunately, I will never need to sit any more exams as the next year’s course will consist solely of independent research.
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