On the third day...

... there appears the distinction between the academic and the profane.

This suggests two issues.

First of all, it implies that academia entails divine qualities.

Look at crowds of young students in the morning (and postgrads at midday) pilgrimaging to the holy halls of the University. Listen to a lecturer opening his talk with personal anecdotes and reflections and compare this to a pastor initiating the Holy Mass. Watch eager students hanging on their Professor’s every word, not only internalizing the content of what’s being said, but feeding on the aura of wisdom. Enter the rearmost areas of a library and find yourself secluded from anything that may approximate the profane. Be surrounded by knowledge with every ancient book that’s lying there on the shelves which may give you insight about the past just the way the Bible does. Let the academic be the land, on which more knowledge is still to grow.

Academia is divine.

Secondly, it implies that academia is not only merely different from, but it’s diametrically opposed to the profane.

The profane includes the whole context of an academic endeavor, everything else which is not directly tied to it. In the life of a PhD student, is there much left? Yes, there is, though one may question whether there’s much of it, anyways. This not only includes what is deemed recreational time (to be used not only for studying those ancient books I mentioned earlier), but emotions and hassles tied to the route towards the academic goal, individual joy and sorrow. Let it be as secular as the choice between cooking some healthy meal or visiting the take-away next door after a hard day’s work is finished. Let it be as mundane as chatting to your friend in Germany about the hormonal cause for women’s apparent unrationalizeable sentiments. Let the profane be the water, which is unpredictable in its vastness.

A PhD’s life is profane.

I will not delve into the immanent linkage between these two concepts, they may, or may not, appear quite obvious during the course of this whole endeavor. Instead, I shall continue with the creation of something entirely new, namely the blossoming of the initial idea. The idea was there at the beginning, but now its evolution begins. A PhD project necessitates a topic. The first step is setting the stage for research. This entails an encompassing literature review and discursive brainstorming, questioning the ones around you to gather new ideas and insights, accumulating knowledge about possible ways you could be heading towards for the next coming weeks, months and years. It’s an exciting process, where you will face rusty moments of rumination because you’re stuck, which however may be brightened by eureka experiences. The research question, precise and to the point, is somewhere out there, just keep your eyes open and your head focused and suddenly it may pop up.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.