For me the university was not about getting good grades, I needed them to prove to everyone that I can do more. I am very passionate about thinking. I know that once Renault Descartes was sitting on the bed and having no activity, he was asked: ‘what are you doing?’. Then he replayedreplyed: ‘I’m thinking’. Reading books and learning is not an uncommon activity among intellectuals, as the activity of thinking is getting more and more uncommon.
During high-school, I have discovered Bart D. Ehrman. I read almost all the books that he has written (in English), and I read them with much enthusiasm. Then, I discovered other books written by scholars about the New Testament. Reading his books has totally changed my worldview and beliefs. Now, my conception of Jesus of Nazareth is totally different from when I was a child/adolescent. My knowledge in this field is vast compared to a normal Bachelor’s degree student in history, but it is very basic compared to a scholar. I studied the life of Bart D. Ehrman and I want to follow the same steps to become a scholar. It is difficult and I know all the difficulties, I have to know perfectly Latin and Greek, and possibly Syriac, Aramaic and Coptic, I would have to read almost everything that has ever been written in the field and I would have to work with the oldest manuscripts available, not to mention that I should study palaeography.