The scent of graduation… and some thoughts

Last Saturday, May 17 marked one of the big dates in my calendar of important events for the year of 2014. Why? Because it was the day of my graduation ceremony. On that day all Faculty of Chemistry students of a final year met in the great assembly hall of Adam Mickiewicz University Collegium Minus to celebrate our getting through the 5 years of difficult tests, exams. On that day nobody remembered about the obstacles we met during our university years. It was our day. My day.

Dressed in black robes and traditional graduate hats we were in the center of attention and we felt special. We’ve been through greater and worse moments during those 5 years but it didn’t stop us from getting better and from continuing the chemistry studies until their very end. And on Saturday it just happened – we graduated. Only a few more words left to write in the final chapter of the book titled University and the story will be complete. There will soon be the time to start a new chapter.

For this special occasion, because a graduation day is a memorable thing for every student, I wanted to make a perfect choice of a perfume I would wear that day. From the start I knew I will be making a choice between the fragrances I know well, so there was no option that my scent of graduation would come from a decant or sample. One of my full bottles was the ONE for that day. In the process of elimination I dismissed all the perfumes that have a sexy vibe to them. I wanted something elegant and something that would pair up with my new self-confidence.

Here allow me to praise myself – since February I have lost 18 kg (40 lbs) of weight. I had to buy a new suit for the graduation ceremony because the old one looked like an oversized bag on me. I felt amazing in the new suit which was 2 sizes smaller. After a few days of considering advantages and disadvantages of chosing this or that perfume I made a decision. Atelier Cologne Silver Iris became my scent of graduation. My beloved note of iris felt very suitable for this occasion – chic, elegant, confident in a special way and present, yet not overwhelming. It was a perfect choice.

Three weeks from now, on June 9 I will be taking my master exam. The moment I pass it I will receive my master thesis and at the same time I will be officially no longer a student but a chemistry master. It will be the actual finale of my studying adventure. I think I did great. Among numerous exams which were not easy only two of them tried to stop me from making another step. But I never gave up and passed them at the second chance. My master thesis has been accepted in the final form a few days ago which means that I’m done with writing it! After months of experiments, collecting literature and writing my work is complete. Now I only need to print it.

The moment of graduation also gave me some time for reflection about the near future. My contract for being an intern in fragrance compositions laboratory terminates with the last day of June. What I’m still learning there is really valuable, especially the fragrance evaluation. It feels good to do that because it’s strictly connected with the fragrance world but to some extend it doesn’t feel right to me because my ambition is to create, not to re-create what someone else did. Fragrance evaluation seems like a good start for a future chance to be get deeper into the perfume industry.

Some time ago I have sent my resume and motivation letter for perfumer training at Givaudan and Mane. We’ll see if they get in touch with me or not. If not I have a great chance to be offered a regular job position in the fragrance lab when my intern contract terminates. I didn’t apply to Grasse Institute of Perfumery (GIP) because I can’t afford it, same applies for the only perfumers course in English offered by ISIPCA (there’s only this one course in English, other studies are in French). I hope that this won’t stop me from fulfilling my dream. It doesn’t have to come true immediately, I’d better get there with small steps than not to get there at all. Patience pays off as people say.

I have to admit that I’m really looking forward to discover what the upcoming months will bring to me and what kind of plan the life (and God) have prepared for me. After those 5 years spent at the Faculty of Chemistry I can say that I have no regrets about chosing the chemical studies. They made me even more sure about my plan of becoming a perfumer. That’s my greatest ambition. Maybe the University didn’t teach me about perfumes as much as I learned myself from various books and by testing them – still it gave me many good lessons about the chemistry of scent.

Here’s to hope for a bright future ahead. And this is my song mood at the moment.

[note] All pictures are my own, all rights reserved.

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