If you told 17, 18 year-old me that in a few years’ time he would be anticipating getting a Bachelor’s degree in anything, I wonder how he would have reacted. A part of me suspects that he would feel that such an achievement was decidedly unbecoming of his character. After all, this self-same boy made a promise to himself that he would quit school at 16 and had, in all but bodily presence, done so long before reaching that age. On the other hand, I dare say there would also have been an acute sense of pride, a sense of victory, a sense that “Gee, maybe I can navigate academia”.