May Day (1st of May) is on Monday, but now it is the long weekend. Students can start their celebrations already today or tomorrow. When I was a student in the 1980s I always liked May Days. It has that special feeling, some kind of freedom. Back in 1987 when I had been in Moscow in March I returned back to my university town with the flag of the Soviet Union. And then May Day came and I celebrated it with my student friends. I passed out after having some of their drinks they had brought because I was not used to drinking alcohol. In the next morning I woke up and I noticed that my Soviet flag was gone from my wall. Later one of my student friends said that they took it and went to a parade with it. They said to return it, but now after 36 years I have not received it yet. Where did it disappear? Funny or not, the USSR disappeared five years after my flag went missing. I did buy a new Soviet flag at one flea market a few years ago. I have a hobby of collecting flags where I have been. The world has changed a lot since my student years. Maybe the biggest changes have been the collapse of the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the evolution of the Internet, the membership in the European Union, the Eurozone and now NATO. Many things have changed and the future is unknown and there will be more changes in the future. I just read recently how they may start creating new human organs in the space where there is no gravity. I am interestingly waiting to learn more about any similar developments. We must continually learn new things as these changes come and change our lives. But one thing is certain, I can always wear my white university hat on the future May Days until the day I die. One role of the university is to create and develop new research and technologies and then help companies to adapt these technologies in new product applications. Without mentioning any countries, some have been more successful in this technological transformation than others. Happy May Day weekend.
