Synapse & Study

Of course we're modern educated people who don't believe in fairies

Stockholm Metro: World’s Longest Art Exhibit

T-Centralen Station

T-Centralen was opened in 1957 and was the first station to feature artwork. Also known as ”the Blue Platform”, T-Centralen was created by the artist Per Olof Ultvedt and is one of the best-known and busiest stations in Stockholm.

spiderman dances to the beat

As a kid I wanted to be a scientist and/or author for the longest time, I wanted to go to a university and become a doctor (I'm pretty sure I read something about Oxford as a child and it stuck) but when my life became more difficult this all suddenly seemed like a childish fantasy.

I joined tumblr in 2013, ten year ago, during the darkest year of my life. In my archive (old blog, not this one) I found zero note text posts I shouted into the void about my future looking bleak. One talked about how I like languages but could never become a translator because my English isn't good enough. My grades tanked that year and I was close to repeating a year. Still, I graduated from high school in 2017 with not good but decent grades. At some point during high school I made this blog to motivate me to study and to exchange ideas with other people. I obviously didn't get into Oxford but I got into a decent university abroad.

During the last year of my Linguistics and Hispanic Studies undergrad I realised how much I love translation and how much I always loved translation. My undergrad dissertation had been difficult and I doubted my ability to go to grad school but I knew I'd need to get a degree or diploma in translation to be taken seriously and I lacked the theoretical and practical experience. My grades were good but not great but I somehow managed to get into a pretty good university.

I didn't really allow myself to think about a phd until very recently, apart from some jokes online. A phd was for people with good grades, academic parents and money. My grandparents spent the last year of my undergrad telling me to not waste my time "dreaming" about a job in the language industry and learn a proper trade instead (they changed their minds now thankfully).

My grades are pretty good this year, I'm getting a lot of firsts for the first time in my life. My supervisors are interested in my thesis topic. When I kvetched online about the idea of a phd but lack of money my supervisor enthusiastically invited me to her office hours and gave me funding tips and supported my idea of a phd. My other supervisor asked me if I considered turning my thesis into a phd thesis. She also enthusiastically encouraged the idea and gave me funding tips.