Today is the 31st of July 2025, and from tomorrow on I’ll be “between jobs”, or as Gen Z allegedly calls it, on a micro-retirement.

When I first came to Kent for my interview, I was thinking, I’ll do this one for practice. I still had more than 2 years left on a research grant we just got, which promised to be lots of fun, but academic jobs for PL systems people are rare, even rarer these days. But then I got the call from Richard Jones, offering me the position, and I never regretted taking him up on it.

Kent’s School of Computing was just growing its Programming Languages and Systems (PLAS) group and Richard, Simon Thompson, Andy King, Peter Rodgers, and many others at the School did a remarkable job in creating an environment and community that was truly supportive of young academics taking their first steps in a permanent academic post. Be it about wrestling with teaching duties, papers, reviews, reviewers, and of course grant writing. PLAS and the School of Computing was the right place for me.

Of course, many things changed since my start in October 2017. Perhaps most notably, Computing is now in the Kennedy building, a very nice space. But there was also that moment, where we, the young ones, became the “senior” ones. Mark, Laura, and Dominic grew well into their new roles and I can only hope that I passed on some of the extensive support I got, to the people who started after me.

There are many challenges ahead for my dear colleagues at Kent, but I hope, that enough of the spirit of support and community remains in the School, enabling PLAS and the next generation of academics to do great things.

Also a huge thank you to Kemi, Anna, and Janet for keeping the School afloat.

I’ll miss you all. Thanks for everything! And see you soon!

* It’s a little more complicated than that, but for good reasons. Right, EPSRC? :)