✅ Yes to Everything
Arian Mirzarafie Ahi
Curious Natural Philosopher @ MCBE | Tutor, Speaker and Writer | thealevelbiologist.co.uk | arianmirzarafieahi.tutorbird.com
Dear reader, this is pretty momentous. Do I tell you about the graduation from Canterbury Christ Church University that I only visited for the first time? The PGDE teaching diploma that I completed entirely remotely? The experience teaching for 2 years during covid?
This above is roughly Mr. Mirzarafie's teaching outfit. That was until the second year when the 4D injuries to my feet demanded heavy duty, giant padding, scientific level shoes (it took me 4 pairs to find the right ones, and this should be a compulsory part of the diploma; I used the chunky, hideous Clarks in the end. Now long donated.)
It was a daily job of intense physical labour in mandatory pretty clothes. A pretty evil setup.
A little secret from my first graduation from Birkbeck, University of London is that I considered not attending graduation. All that fuss for a degree. We're not that smart, what is there to celebrate? (I ended up attending.)
I had the opposite feeling for this one. That feeling of...
Yes we are going! Yes we are gowning! Yes we are taking photos and feeling proud! 🎉
So I did. I did it for the breaths in my face, the on-and-off visoring and masking, the aggregated millions of notebooks fighting against both gravity and time, names, line-ups, micro lunches, bells, questions, answers, house points, detentions, emergencies, virtual, hybrid and hyper-hybrid Zoom/Meet/Teams monstrosimeetings...
Recommended by LinkedIn
And I didn't even get to mention the patellar tendonitis that coincided with that first year of coviding and training... before finding the Clarks shoes.
The qualification had less to do with any of that, of course. It was all online. I saw the university for the first time this week. I saw my coursemates for the first time, too.
Yes to the road trip. Yes to the celebration.
No handshake. But the hat fitted me much better this time around. And all these pictures now look a lot more like me.
There is much more to be said about all those experiences. I am sure I will get to it. But for now...
Yes. Yes to everything.
🥳