Three Degrees

Another 'nostalgia blip', I'm afraid. Re-arranging the study (again) this evening I discovered the stiffened envelopes with my degree certificates. Three simple pieces of paper that mark the end of so many hours and hours of study. Each course also marked by a ceremony in grand surroundings. First, in Durham Castle, where Dame Margot Fonteyn shook my hand and said, 'well done, Jonathan', as she handed me my Geography BSc. A year and a half later I travelled down to London to receive my Geography MSc in the Albert Hall. Heavy snow on the day meant that many people weren't able to graduate in person, which was a shame. Ironically, having had to travel so far that I needed to stay overnight in central London I was able to walk to the ceremony while people who lived close enough to travel on the day were unable to get there. Fast forward a quarter century and I was in Edinburgh's Usher Hall for my Photography BA. Coincidently, although I studied for three years in Edinburgh, the degree was technically awarded by Abertay University, Dundee, my home town Can these pieces of paper, particularly the last, be a pier from which to set out across a new ocean, rather than merely trophies on the wall?