After two years studying Japanese, I started a history degree in Lyon. I absolutely fell in love with the 19th century, and more specifically with women’s history. It was the beginning of big political issues in my university, where Napoleon fans were unfortunately way more presents than I thought. For my 3rd year, I had the chance to go to Ireland, to an absolute amazing university that looked like Hogwarts: University College of Cork. They had many courses in gender studies, which was amazing for me! I also had the opportunity to study folklore and Irish, which was unexpected and so interesting.
After this degree, I had to think about the future. And honestly, I thought I’d go into research. I realized quite quickly that I might not be as strong as the task is. Sounds very pessimistic, but the field I wanted to work on started to get too much psychologically. I spent two semesters reading absolute horrors on women, and it already felt so overwhelming to fight. I know this will be something later in my life I have to do, but for now, I thought “I like old things, I love history, reading is my main hobby and I want to work, why not be a librarian?” I firstly applied to this master for fun, I must say! I thought I’d never be accepted, because it was such a unique program. But here I am! And I’m so happy to spend most of my days learning new things about ancient books, book culture and create new memories with a very diverse group! The research project is a way for me to experience just a bit of what it is, and I’m looking forward to the internships so that I can work, use what I know and learn new things. Even though I love history class, I think manipulating the books are my favorite part!
Just to summarize some thoughts on everything, I’d say growing up is a very hard process, which seems to never end. Learning is the main point, to know how to survive and mostly to enjoy it. I always thought future was a far and obscure thing, which was uncertain and the journey to get there was not fun. Turns out, growing up – for me – was realizing that the journey has to be the future. That’s why I’m so grateful for being here, learning things I like, trying things as much as I can, being as weird as it is possible. Life does not have to be just one life you chose at 20 years old.
To illustrate my journey, I decided to show you my cat, Perle. Along my process, she is always here with me, and is such a comforting little soul. Also, she absolutely loves Besançon!
