I dream about returning to the University as a full-time student—to do what I had been doing before I was side-tracked.

I completed my master’s thesis in 2000 and received a good grade for it, and the advanced studies required by my major have also been done for a long time now. Despite this I still do not have my master’s degree because I am still missing the last few credits. I have tried to find the time for them, but so far I haven't had much luck.

When becoming employed put a stop to my studies back in the last decade, I was a typical Finnish pessimist and expected that within a few years there would be a significant decline in my job situation. Then I would make my return, quickly graduate with a master’s degree and start my post-graduate studies. What happened in reality was that the phase in my life which I had intended as temporary is still going on. And in the meantime, even those topics I had planned to use for a possible dissertation have been already used by others.

In recent years I have been writing an article manuscript in English on a slightly different topic. It has started to expand in all sorts of directions and will soon be the length of a short book. At least my friends at the University to whom I have shown it have said that it might one day become my dissertation. Qui vivra verra.