This week I got my diploma from Gothenburg University! Have you seen something so beautiful?
I’m so proud I might burst at any second now! And as always here in the blog, there is a story!
When I went to high school or gymnasiet as we say here in Sweden, the probability that I were going to study at a university were on the minus scale, basically it was non existent. Then and there I was studying economics and I kind of quickly realized that economics were not my forte.
The years passed and in my early 20’s I began to think about maybe studying religion, not to become a priest or anything like that, just to get to know more and satisfy my curiosity. But I was quickly told that it was so hard and so difficult to do that. And since I didn’t thought of myself as an academic I thought that it was not for me. Around this time I also wanted to pursue this artistic career, that I later on did pursue.
In my mid 20’s I played around with the idea of having an artistic career and on my spare time taking courses at some university, where I lived somewhere in Europe; while working in a major animation studio...
Quite some few years passed and it becomes clear to me that this career in animation will have to wait, due to how hard it is to get in... I start studying and upgrade my grades, and here I anew start to ponder about these religious studies. I apply to some schools and I got accepted for two educations: religious studies in Uppsala and Fritidsledarlinjen at Sigtuna folkhögskola. The Uppsala one was full on academic and the Sigtuna one was not that academic but we did our fare share of studying and preparing for the working life. I chose the Sigtuna one because I didn’t feel like an academic...
The years passed and I worked with kids in the church of Sweden. A job that I liked which was also rewarding. I decided to finish my education and become församlingspedagog/Parish pedagog. So I returned to Sigtuna for my final year. That year was an important one for me for it gave me some time to put things into perspective. There we that studied parish pedagogics were also teachers for other students, where we looked at the five world religions.
I was very surprised because we had to get the knowledge ourselves and also to pass it along to our students, and how can you distill thousands of years of hinduism in one or two lessons, for example. I was seized by this question, and that made me to apply to the Gothenburg University and the program Religious studies and Theology.
In 2009 I started my academic studies and I liked it, a lot! But then and there it was only to be that one year, then I was going back to work. But after a while I decided to actually finish what I started (I want to do that). And the result from these endeavors can be seen on the picture of my diploma! I now got a Filosofie kandidatexamen med huvudområdet religionsvetenskap och teologi/Degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in Religious Studies and Theology.
And I’ve already started my graduate studies, and at the moment I’m planning what I’m going to specialize in.
So do I feel like an academic then? Well, the jury is still out on that one...! But I can truthfully say that I during these studies didn’t need to redo any exam at all, I passed them all and some with distinction!
So what can we learn from this then? If someone says that something is so difficult or so hard, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to succeed, you might just do that!
I’ve always held the academics in high regard because of how difficult their studies have been. Well, the only thing that was needed, was time and interest!
Well, I better stop now before the gods strike me down for my hubris...
Take care!
