My journey as a PhD candidate started amidst a pandemic. Belgium had once more gone into lockdown. Working from home was mandatory, so my first official day at work was in a home office. I couldn’t meet my colleagues, sit in my office, and have coffee breaks with coworkers.

Gradually, the restrictions are being lifted, vaccin rates are up and while “telework”–working from home–is still recommended, we are allowed to go back to the office. After many months of online meetings and virtual coffee breaks, I get to have them in real life. It’s exciting to talk to other people, to not remain on your solitary isle and to swap experiences and just socialise. I’m still not at the office full time, but it’s a start.

There’s also the added element of having two offices at different locations and in different departments. Having spent my entire undergrad life in Gent, Leuven presents all things that come with a new job. It’s novel and unknown, yet so far, my experience in the literary department and in the English Lit research group has been very enjoyable. People have been accommodating and welcoming, even before my project had received funding. It’s been wonderful, really. The history department in Gent, however, is kind of like the old cardigan under your bed. It’s the department where I first found my love for research. It is the building that I sought my way around in for four years, the one where many non-history and non-archaeology students are surprised to find that there are offices there. It is the place where I had my first class and my first exam, the locale of my academic beginnings.

Why the old cardigan under the bed? I left the history department after graduation in 2017 and went in search for other pastures, namely historical literature. At that moment, I wasn’t sure whether I’d return to history at some time or other. In those three years it took me to obtain my MA in historical linguistics and literature, the UFO became a distant memory. The Blandijn, much more than in preceding years, became my second home. While I still made some trips to the UFO to visit my former supervisor, history had to make room for literary studies. But I could never truly abandon it.

This brings me to my current situation, where I get to combine my love for the past with my interest in literature. I get to enjoy the familiar setting of my first passion, while also expanding my horizons, simultaneously setting off and coming home.