Here. We. Go.

Oxford Update #1: Jet-lagged in bed

What’s the vibe?… I have been soooooo soooo good not reaching out giving you space 🤣I feel like a Labrador… How’re the new digs?… You make any friends yet?…

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Happy October my good friend. I moved to Oxford University last Sunday to start the “Masters in Philosophy of International Relations”. Here’s a quick strip. A naked update if you will. A little tease of what’s to come. I’ll stop with that, but I do think my experience may interest you.

Welcome to a short one covering the first week of whatever the hell will follow… in the dreary backwaters of England, my arc as an author and athlete will be headquartered here… for the next two years….. If you know how often I’ve come to enjoy new communities, that two year commitment terrifies me the most. Do it. Diagnose me.

Summer CV Hardo Update: I’m happy with September. I’m in review for Bay Area Abroad, submitted two other works, swam the alpine lakes of the Sawtooth’s in Idaho, PR’d a 70.3 like A BIG DAWG, and smoked a half marathon mountain race— but most importantly, I just took care of myself: slept and ate well, didn’t overtrain, spent time with loved ones, camped under the stars with good friends, and rested when I needed to. I am so lucky.

Max is doing well. Well he was. It’s three in the morning. Again. I’ve been jet-lagged for 4 days. I also didn’t bring the right power converters so I lay in bed typing my phone into death to help me fall back asleep. Dude get your life together. Max will nap this afternoon.

Classrooms, dining halls, labs, gyms, apartments are shelled within buildings that easily date back centuries— the institution was older than the Aztec Empire. My American peabrain—that conceives of national history in a short term—short circuits thinking of the daily lives that have lived through literal ages of time. How many have said “I love you” in my resident park that’s a thousand years old?

It’s all so trippy today too. With this degree, the readings start very theoretical with some absurd coursework. I must embrace some inescapable elitism when my future job could lie, in part, to how well I pass a class about the “formation of international thought”. Like seriously. This research can end up so faraway from what ideas the economy rewards today. This sure doesn’t sound like comparing the impact of AI on anything for a hedge fund.

I do feel separated from the outside world. The intense intellectualism of academia takes up more mindshare. I can’t obsess over the daily news in tech and global affairs, nor do I have to as much. Either way, obsessing over nebulous things can remove us from the grounding world that actually changes life. Is this Oxford’s fault? I don’t think so; I just need to remember to touch grass, read, visit my friends and family in the workforce.

I will find more of my people outside the Department too through triathlon, rowing, and some technology and entrepreneurship programs. And compared to Sun Valley, San Fransisco, New York, and Washington DC, the fitness culture is hilariously lazy here. There’s this weird “cool” brag about not exercising(???). Whatever, I’ll take an emptier gym.

So, this campus is so convenient, but it cannot connect me my life outside of it that I’ve built, and don’t plan to leave behind.

I can tell most students do not share my own professional struggles in my early twenties, where I leapfrogged around like a white collar vagabond. I do not know their own struggles, but they have shared they do not share mine: walking into jobs that don’t fit them, being pumped full of cortisol in some factory, or been fired/hired/quit constantly. Here is where I admittedly feel some humbled advantage. Things will be okay. Dear god, stop asking about how long the final is 1 year from now.

Oh, and I wonder if I enter every room the least interesting in my cohort. I will share the intense experiences that’ve shaped me in due time… But for now, envision me in business casual everyday, looming over everyone uncomfortably in the back (+1 for the tall white American in the back). I miss my tall people lol.

I may be loud online, but I’ve been relatively quiet in person since arriving. I retreat to my slipstream by finding the familiar flow of training and writing alone by ducking out of these exhausting mixers where you can’t even hear anyone. It’s been nice, comforting even, extending my summer work and keeping in touch with friends across time zones.

I want this series on Oxford to stay casual. It’s just a public token of gratitude to all those who support me to live, study, and work in some of the world’s most historic, hallowed halls. I’m talking about anyone who checks in, calls, offers advice; these are all resources I cannot do without. Thank you.

I’ll button this up into a miserable LinkedIn blurb, but Substack is a selfish pleasure. They’re a long text to no one, and perhaps everyone. So I miss you all.

For better or worse, I’m an open book. And then I remember I shouldn’t share some chapters. So reach out anytime.

Max

Thanks for being here. You’re kind enough to put up with me— and my tendency to reject the “typical” way to use social media.