On my twitter feed this morning (@breeonne), I saw a line scroll past from a UBC student (I assume) who demanded to know how UBC thought he (or her) could possibly write three well-written, concise and thought-provoking essays in two hours.

My immediate reaction was complete empathy. I’ve been there, friend. Over 10 years ago, but I’ve been there. Try having to write a science exam with essays, that was hard.

And then I realized that now, 10 years later, I do that on a weekly basis. Not write three essays a week, but there are days in a week when I do hammer out the equivalent of three essays in two hours. And unlike school (where I paid for the privilege), these ones are graded by the public and are a precondition of my paycheque.

Honestly, it’s one of the best skills I ever developed and one of the only thing that I’ve carried from the degree (outside of a healthy skepticism toward media reports on scientific research) So thanks, UBC.