I just checked in online for tomorrow’s flight. The bags are mostly packed, liquids are tucked away in their individual saclettes and all travel documents are piled up by the front door. The fridge is purged of all perishables (note to self: buy milk when you get back to avoid coupling jet lag with coffee withdrawal) and suitcases have been strategically injected with emergency supplies of sugar-free red bull and protein bars. I think I’m ready. Let’s do this! Let’s go graduate!

I attended university twice. The first time was to get a business degree. I did that in buildings that had walls and ceilings, windows, doors and floors, of course. I sat in desks, raised my hand to ask questions and scribbled notes on processed trees with pens that blistered my finger tips. I eventually went to my graduation ceremony in a building I walked by dozens of times and where I even attended the one and only psychology class I could handle. I shook some robed dude’s hand, walked off the stage with a piece of rolled up paper and posed for pics on the lawn with the family unit. All in all, a regular graduation story to add to the memory books.

The second time I went to university, it was to get a masters degree in online and distance education. I did that wherever there was connectivity (i.e. wherever I could access an Internet connection, plug into a power supply, and tap into the nearest caffeine drip). I read tons of old fashioned book chapters and online journal articles while curled up on the floor next to my MFI sofa in a flat that the previous tenants used as the base for their Romanian brothel (something I conveniently discovered only after signing the lease). I wrote assignments from exotic locations like moist English train stations while crunching on my signature baggies of carrots, to student canteens where I grabbed a table between  meetings with either infectiously enthusiastic teachers, or, when I got really lucky, with hideously resentful techno-phobic ‘experts’. I collaborated with colleagues during virtual tutorials while Dr. Scientifico rubbed elbows with Nobel Laureates, and held poolside video conferences with classmates from my parents’ place in Florida. The only time I raised my virtual hand was to get in electronic line to symbolically grab the mic to ask a question to a person thousands of miles and multiple time-zones away. I took copious notes, but this time, my keyboard took the brunt of the abuse.

I eventually received an email notifying me that I was eligible to attend my graduation in a palace that I had only visited once before, some 18 years ago, and where I vaguely remember my parents arguing about something while I posed for pictures in which I later discovered the locals felt the need to mock me. And now, 60 pounds lighter and 3 ounces wiser, I’m about to board the first of a sequence of planes, trains and automobiles to get to my graduation ceremony in a magnificent château where Marie-Antoinette surely indulged in at least a few pieces of cake. I’ll probably shake some other robed dude’s hand (or it could very well be a dudette), and walk off the stage with another piece of rolled up paper. This time, I’ll pose for pics with friends and extended family from all around the world who will travel far and wide to attend the event, and maybe I’ll even get a picture with the statue of a king or two. All in all, an unbelievably uncustomary graduation story to shout from the rooftops.

Technology is a thread that connects every one of us on this planet. When I was in high school, I hardly knew how to send an email and the only place in the school that had computers was the computer lab – a stuffy, dusty room in the basement filled with humming machines that were out of date even before they came out of their boxes. There was no connection. I couldn’t see how anything I was being taught had any relevance in the real world.

Fast forward a decade – tutors, second markers and external examiners from all over Europe collaborated remotely to complete the marking my final thesis. Over the past three and a half years, I’ve lived in three countries spanning two continents, and traveled to some of the most beautiful places, all while studying my masters. Technology made that possible. Actually, no, that’s not entirely true. It was a mixture of technology plus people who were willing to step out of their boxes, expand their minds, broaden their understandings and develop innovative ways of working with new tools to make education more accessible to anyone and everyone willing and able to make the investment in  themselves.

In a few days, I’ll be attending my graduation in Versailles and accepting my second degree from the largest university in Europe that supports over 200,000 students from all over the world – students of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds, who put in the work to fuel their passions, to explore their interests, and to empower themselves with the tools to better this world…because who else is going to do it if we all don’t step up?

When I was in high school, and even when I was in university the first time around, the job for which I’m now trained didn’t really exist. I was studying topics that I thought were going to be useful in my future, but that instead were based on old schools of thought. And if anything, education should be about preparing you for what’s to come, not for what once was.

Technology has made the world a smaller place, and that’s a beautiful thing. Now if only someone could just figure out how to teleport, then maybe we could be done with airplane food and shoeless airport security checkpoints.

• Coffee Break