And honestly, watching that defense made me respect the journey more than the title.
Maybe the real achievement wasn't the PhD itself. Maybe it was refusing to give up on something that took more than a decade to complete.
2014 - 2026
Seeing him there reminded me that there is no universal timeline for becoming. Some people finish early, some take longer, some change direction completely. What matters is that the pursuit still means something to them.
Sometimes we look at education only through the lens of age, employment, salary, or immediate benefits. We ask, “At this age, what does he still need the degree for?” But knowledge doesn't have an expiry date.
He started the program in 2012, began the project work around 2014, and here he was in 2026, finally defending his thesis. That’s over a decade of persistence.
His research was somewhere around Geophysics and Archaeology.