My first 'best memories’ from the University of Helsinki have to do with the time I was the president of the archaeology students’ organisation Fibula ry ( in Finnish) in the late 1980s. Student life was so carefree! Parties, excursions to ancient remains, Scandinavian student meetings...

My 'even better' memories have to do with my graduation. I wrote my MA thesis in 1994, after which I started a family and began to oversee archaeological excavations all over Finland. My graduation kept getting postponed, which caused me a lot of anxiety until I finally decided to do something about it in January 2011. The whole time I had convinced myself and others that I had just 'a few' courses left. It soon came out that I had been telling whoppers, even to myself. However, what followed was perhaps the best time in my life so far, when I returned to my studies: two years of studying full-time, wonderful people and interesting lectures that gave me new ideas. Finally, about 130 credits later, I graduated with a master’s in December 2013. As they say, it's never too late, or at least that’s how it proved to be with my studies.