when i first met him at the university it was for an interview. after we left my colleague told me he had felt like an outsider once we started to talk. it was him and me. now after almost year of emails, i will get to see him again next week. i had asked him if i could come to his office once again and after some days there was a call on my phone, number surpressed. it was him. him in his very own way. “why do you easily travel to north korea but then it takes you so long to find my ofice?” he said in his unique way. worst of all i had no answer. i told him i would have loved to talk to him about his “good ranking” he got by the handelsblatt” (top 4 scientist in europe). “what do you mean by good ranking, i am up there among the best”. typical him. our talks are not only entertaining but sometimes i believe i can take a glimpse of his genius. if only for a second, but this split-second inspires me. i know his story, or at least some more or less fragmental parts of it and by him accepting me though he’s a professor and i am a 20-something not knowing what to do, he accepts me as who i am.
i believe.