On Education and the Things Nobody Can Take Away From You

Maybe it's because we're in the middle of graduation season, but I've been thinking a lot about education lately.

Over the last few weeks, I've watched people I grew up with collect degrees they've spent years working towards. Some of them I've known since childhood. Others are friends I've met more recently who somehow survived dissertations, deadlines, part-time jobs and everything else life decided to throw at them at exactly the wrong moment. Seeing them reach the finish line has made me surprisingly emotional, partly because I know how much work sits behind a graduation photo, and partly because education has always meant something deeply personal to me.

One of my long-term goals is to earn a PhD. I have absolutely no idea what age I'll be when it happens, but I know I want "Dr" in front of my name one day. Not for the prestige, although I'd be lying if I said the prefix wasn't unbelievably chic, but because of what it represents. To me, there is something incredibly beautiful about dedicating years of your life to understanding something more deeply than you did before.

I've always admired people who remain curious. The kind of people who ask questions, read widely, learn new skills and refuse to believe that education ends when you leave a classroom. I think we sometimes underestimate what continual learning does for us. It sharpens the way we engage with the world. It gives us context and teaches us how to recognise patterns, challenge assumptions and understand experiences beyond our own.

As Black women, education carries a particular weight. Access to knowledge has never been something we should take for granted. In England, young Black students are entering higher education at far higher rates than they were twenty years ago, and women continue to make up a significant proportion of university students. Those figures matter because they represent thousands of individual decisions to invest in oneself despite financial pressures, family responsibilities, self-doubt and the countless other things that can make higher education feel out of reach.

What I find most comforting about education, though, is how permanent it can be.

Life changes constantly. People leave. Circumstances shift. Careers move in directions you never planned for. Yet the things you've genuinely learned tend to stay with you. Not always in obvious ways, but somewhere beneath the surface. Learning feels a bit like riding a bike in that respect. You might wobble after time away from it, but the knowledge remains stored somewhere in your body, waiting to be called upon again.

A degree certificate isn't the only valuable form of education, and university certainly isn't the only place people learn. Some of the smartest people I know have built their expertise through work, experience and self-teaching. What matters is the willingness to keep expanding your understanding of the world rather than allowing it to shrink.

Maybe that's why graduation season affects me so much. Beyond the gowns and ceremonies, knowledge is one of the few things we can invest in that continues to belong to us long after the moment has passed. Watching people reach that milestone fills me with genuine pride, not because they now have a certificate, but because they have spent years building something within themselves that nobody can take away.

And honestly, I think that's worth celebrating.

Written by Vanessa Twerefou