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Forgetting Knowledge Once Acquired It’s Like Erasing One’s Existence

Araci Matos
7 min readOct 20, 2022
My mom and I, after I finished my Master’s degree. University of Coimbra, humanities department.

It’s been almost a year since I finished my master’s degree. A year ago, around this time, I was going through a big stressful time, busy with my regular work, mixed up with the huge anxiety of finally finishing the thesis and starting a new chapter in my life.

They were difficult days, of tremendous intellectual pressure that left me no time for anything. Not even to eat, which was reflected in my involuntary weight loss.

When I finally went to college for the thesis defense day, I was nervous, but at the same time, I was looking forward more than anything to the final moment when I would finally leave those doors with my Master’s degree finished.

But this time last year was when the real magic was on.

Though nervous, I was magically absorbed in my thesis, in talking about Spike Lee, American cinema, and understanding the history of racism in America and a little bit all over the world. It was, after all, a wonderful time. I felt happy to learn something new and feel that I understood what I was writing and talking about. I finally felt that my voice, my words, and what I had to say were validated.

And when the day of the defense came, and I finished my master’s degree with a good grade, that feeling of validity had been even…

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Araci Matos
Araci Matos

Written by Araci Matos

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