Sometimes I truly and intensely miss student life, and it didn't even end that long ago. I don’t miss exams, nor essays, except from a few really thought-provoking ones. Most lectures would simply put me to sleep, seminars varied like the seasons (before climate change, in any case), and as for surreal conversations with teachers and co-students…I’ve had my share, but, in general,my social skills betrayed me, particularly early in the morning.

What of stoned mornings, drunken nights, casual sex and wild parties? These, I think, are interests you grow out of, rather than leave behind. Plus, none of it has to end when student life does. Athens is filled with newly-opened bars and cafes, in turn filled with slightly confused 30somethings, desperately clinging to some vague idea of alcohol-fueled fun, too immature to have families, too poor to engage in more sophisticated activities, too old to simply stay at home and play videogames all day.

So, as you grow older, drunken nights may lose their spontaneity, but at least they’re more under control. Stoned mornings become rarer, which is why you can actually appreciate them. Wild parties…my impression is they still occur somewhere, though better ask someone who’s into them. I never was. Now, casual sex might increase or decrease in frequency, but in terms of quality... it’s just one of the things that get better with time.

Then what, you may ask, do I miss? Nothing too obvious.
I miss the endless free time, often feeling stressed by approaching deadlines, yet nonetheless surprisingly calm. I miss working whenever I wanted to, planning long trips without caring about skipping a few classes. Above all, I miss my quiet existence, my melancholic sunsets, my creative hours of solitude, my ever-deepening thoughts, which sometimes flirted with paranoia. I miss my inner self, now almost out of reach, this still and guarded place at the edge of my mind.
I miss home.