Hail

Falling asleep with an open window, I was woken around midnight by strong winds and fierce hail hitting the glass. Lying awake, thoughts wandering, I struggled to make sense of the year that has passed since the last graduation ceremony in June 2025: how different, yet similar, my life was back then, and how grateful I am for what I have experienced despite all the pain it has entailed.

Eventually, I fell asleep, only to be woken by my 4:45 alarm telling me that it was time to get up and catch a train to Halmstad. Reading the news, I learned that Anthropic has issued another warning to slow down AI development, which, given the immense risks of recursive AI self-improvement, is as urgent as it is unrealistic, while Zelensky is calling for a face-to-face meeting with Putin.

But, for now, the world is still there and, today, we will send off another cohort of ambitious students. Celebrating how much they have learned over these past three years – the first cohort I have followed through their entire studies at Halmstad – and hearing about their plans for the future, I cannot help but feel optimistic. The road may be anything but straight but, somehow, we will figure this out.