At 31,

I am more alive, yet closer to death.

I am restless on a myriad of levels as opposed to only a few, as in my youth.

I am as hungry for knowledge as ever before. It is the ravenous appetite that is never quelched.

I am curious if I will amount to anything worthwhile, anything I consider worthwhile.

I heave at the weight of potential, of possibility.

I am more tacit, more linear in my understanding than the abstractness of my 20’s thinking.

I still see the infinite possibility of humanity, yet am more attuned to our collective pitfalls, our inevitable failure, our hedged bets.

I draw further away from passion and more towards logic, having seen the beauty of moderation, of balance.

I fail less than I succeed and can consider my presence a positive.

I am being pulled by my wanderlust and believe I will eventually succumb to it.

I love my wife.
I love my life.

By Michael Gallagher

My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.

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