I spent 4 years studying undergraduate philosophy in Canada, one year taking courses in Germany, 2 years in a Masters program, 11 years in the USA in a PhD program writing my dissertation, 7 years on the tenure track as an assistant professor, and 4 years as a tenured associate professor of philosophy. Numerically this would seem to add up to 29 years, but because I overlapped studying and working full-time, I did these things between 1988 and 2013, over a chronological period of 25 years.
If I pile up my Masters thesis and my doctoral dissertation on top of the scholarly articles, and lay them on top of an enormous white 4 inch binder containing my application for tenure, all these bound documents would fit inside a box measuring 10 inches high, 12 inches wide and 13 inches deep.
I wonder what I will have to show after the next 25 years of my life? Perhaps it won't fit inside a small box. Perhaps I won't have written many words, but I'll have made memories and experienced moments of curiosity, joy, fear, discovery, and connection.
