Deciding to become an academic, was neither an easy nor a fast decision. I remember I was going around a lot until I decided to start a PhD: I basically took a 9 months of retreat in order to decide what do I want to do with my life (while doing my compulsory military service :P). And deciding to stick to academia after I finished my PhD took me even longer… I actually still thinking about it from time to time. What were my options though? I wanted to have a life of exploration and learning, of flexibility and self-organisation, of connection with the world and communication with it. What other job could offer me these posibilities?