One of the strangest conversations I've ever had

One of the strangest conversation I have ever had happened a few months or so after I finished my Honours year. I can’t remember what the event was (maybe M+S’s engagement?) but I remember standing at the buffet talking to a woman a few years older than me. I’d known her since childhood, and she’d just had her first child. It went something like this:

• How is the baby? You seem so happy.
• He is great, we are great. I had the most wonderful labour. Such a blessing. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s bad! They’re trying to scare you. I didn’t even tear at all, though of course some people tear from front to back. How are you?
• I’m alright. I’m finding post-Honours weird, and I can’t quite explain it. It feels strange, I feel strange—like coming back to earth, like trying to fit back into real life, or something.
• Oh like, it’s quite intellectual, and now you have to do regular things?
• I suppose, something like that.

I remember this now as I’m learning about ML, because it is starting to feel the same—not quite on earth, and extremely engrossed. Now, with more under my belt, I don’t know that it was quite like that. Much to think about. I missed it.