work hard for a cause...

I still have to study two years, perhaps more if I decide to do another master. For the moment, I am indecisive about what I want to do in my life, about what I want to work in. I think it is difficult to determine your future; it is vain to predict it. You cannot choose something you have not experienced yet. But it is true you can have hopes, you can imagine how you see you, even if it is likely to change.

I would like to pursue my career in environmental issues. That is why, next year, I start my master of International Affairs with a specialization in Environment, Sustainable Development and Risks. But the following of my academic and professional life is really blurred. I just know, or at least I think, I want to work in the creation and implementation of environmental policies and sustainable development projects at a local level (to be more likely to have a concrete and effective action).

As far as the sector is concerned, I think it is not a criteria: I want to work in something I like, I want to fight for this cause, and I do not care of the sector I am in to do so. The important point for me is to be efficient, to have a real impact on the reduction of the ecological impact of a country, a city, a person, a firm.

Nevertheless, I am sure of one thing: my job should not be the motor of my life, I am not interested in earning much money, I aspire to a quiet and original life, I want to travel, to change of country and of job every five years, to have the time for painting, hiking, reading: it is necessary to combine work and pleasure and to avoid routing setting in. Otherwise, I might grow tired quickly of my life.

“One hour of reading is the sovereign medicine against the disgusts of life.” Montesquieu

I love reading, thus I read a lot. At least, I try to do so. As Victor Hugo said it, “Whoever you are, who want to cultivate, to invigorate, to edify, to move, to appease, put books everywhere.” Indeed, reading brings me knowledge: an historical one when I read a book whose story happens in an other era, or when I read properly historical books or essays; a linguistic knowledge since, reading, I learn new words, I improve my own writing; a personal and psychological knowledge since reading helps me to know myself. In a nutshell, reading improves a lot my culture. Besides, reading helps me to disconnect myself from daily life, to relax: “I made some delicious trips, embarked on a word…” said Balzac.

I do not have a unique taste in terms of reading. But generally I love reading books with an historical, psychological, cultural focus, I also enjoy travels book.

At present, I am reading a novel of Herman Hesse, a German writer: “The Glass Bead Game”. It is quite complicated for me to summarize it because I have just started it. But, briefly, it is the story of very elitist, intellectual and artistic schools in Germany in the XIX century, and more especially of a boy, then a young man, studying in one of them, and hesitating between the prestige of such schools and the apparent freedom of the outside.

The book I most remember, which had a notable impact on me is “A confederacy of dunces”, of John Kennedy Tool. The title derives from the epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Ignatius, the main character is something of a modern Don Quixote — eccentric, idealistic, and creative, but also misanthrope. His adventures in the search of a job and his evolution are really great.

Despite of my love for books and reading, I am, it is true, a little upset about the future of books. Nevertheless, I don’t think that books will totally disappear. Indeed, even if the advent of internet and technology (see the recent innovation of Apple, the Ipad) enables people to read books on internet , there will always be people loving reading printed books, because it is more authentic, more comfortable, more convenient. A paper book, you just can bring it everywhere. A computer or an Ipad, no. Thus, I do not believe in the “extinction” of paper book, but, yes, I believe paper books are an endangered specie.

Not only because of technology, but also because of the decreasing attraction books have among the young. The promotion of reading by the state is a hard task, and according to me, it should be the task of the parents, and not on a compelling way, but on an encouraging way.