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For the first time in approximately 25 years, I am not a student.

I have no homework, no assigned reading, no exams. No teachers, no professors, no academic advisor. I am not enrolled in any kind of degree program.

That’s Dr. I-am-not-enrolled-in-any-kind-of-degree-program to you, by the way.

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I am a Wrinkle in Time devotee. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read each book since childhood. On some level, I wanted to live them—instead of paying attention to my titrations in chem lab, I pondered the logistics of making stew over a Bunsen burner. And to this day I cannot read the opening scene without craving a tuna salad sandwich with pickles.

And I wanted to build a model of a tesseract.

In the books, the tesseract is described as the fifth dimension, which enables you to bend space-time and teleport.

“What is the first dimension?”

“Well—a line.”

“Okay. And the second?”

“Well, you’d square the line. A flat square would be in the second dimension.”

“And the third?”

“Well, square the second dimension. Then the square wouldn’t be flat any more. It would have a bottom, sides, and a top.”

“And the fourth?”

“Well, I guess if you wanted to put it into mathematical terms you’d square the [cube]. But you can’t take a pencil and draw it the way you can the first three. I know it’s got something to do with Einstein and time. I guess maybe you could call the fourth dimension Time.”

“That’s right,” Charles said. “Good girl. Okay then, for the fifth dimension you’d square the fourth, wouldn’t you?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, the fifth dimension’s a tesseract. You add that to the other four dimensions and you can travel through space without having to go the long way around.”

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Could I have been a world-class expert in something by the age I am now?

And would I want to be?

If I could make myself a world-class expert in something by the time I’m 40 (reducing my daily commitment to 2 hours, 15 minutes), what would it be? And does my asking this question suggest that I need a career change?

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