I hold myself accountable for my own grand dreams and the confidence I have to endure a grand scheme. My grand scheme in life is to live with a sense of purpose, and to help this along, my grand dream for the summer of 2022 was to enjoy a life untethered to a market. 

Before becoming dull employees, before buckling down into the dreary job market, my friends and I set off to be dutiful travellers. We were so sure - I myself being particularly vocal - that we would never get this time back. We would never know the words idle, stagnant or mundane. 

After graduation, we would have opportunities lined up, jobs throwing themselves at our feet just to get a whiff of this Cambridge master’s degree. And sure enough, I rode this belief with confidence onto the morning of graduation day, as I continue riding here, a few months later with no job in sight. 

As many of us were international students, we knew that timely decisions would have to be made. Would we further invest in our UK trajectory with a hefty visa fee on the horizon or would we go back to our respective countries before our journeys had even begun?