The glorious path

It is said that the gods, at the moment of conception, give mortals a decisive choice: a long life or a glorious life.

They choose, and then, the soul is massaged, gifted with amnesia and introduced into the infants’ bodies through a breath. When they grow, they fulfil their destiny.

Portuguese Universities (that is to say, the people) are confronted with two different scenarios: to keep everything the same or to take chances. Many choose not to take those chances.

That is not, however, the essence of the winners.

We have spent years complaining about the constraints of the state’s management model, complaining about the inefficiencies that this model generates, complaining about the agents’ lack of responsibility, complaining about the culture of “how to spend”, instead of “how to earn”. We have spent decades regretting about a sterile academia, about the image of the wise man on his tower, about how difficult it is for the industry and the university to relate. We spend all our time crying about the budget’s faults, about the lack of human resources, about the fact that society cannot understand how noble our missions are.

But when the opportunity to change comes, when a scenario where we depend on ourselves is drawn, where our in(competence) is important, what do we choose?

Some of us gave chosen the glorious path. It is good to be part of a University that defines itself as a university that takes risks because it has a dream.

It is said that the gods offer mortals a decisive choice: a long life or a glorious life.

Who said that these concepts exclude each other?