I differed from most of my fellow students by not living the student life, properly speaking. I had some income from ice hockey and that always needed to be sorted out first. As a result, my attendance at lectures was sometimes sporadic and I scraped through many exams, relying more on attitude than studying.

While my friends were campaigning for a car-free campus, I often came to class or to exams at the last minute, parking my company car – and its garish decals, advertising my team, Jokerit – by the meter in front of Porthania. Even then I understood it was a tasteless thing to do, but in the ice hockey rink, you need a certain ruthlessness that proved difficult to switch off during the drive from the ice rink to the campus.

I also remember buying what was then a rare and expensive commodity, an Apple Macintosh computer. The word processor, especially its ‘copy & paste’ function, sped up my graduation considerably. I don’t recall ever using the library. I bought my textbooks in Stockmann’s Academic Bookstore or abroad and read them at Primula’s coffee shop in Viiskulma, central Helsinki, or during away fixtures.