"Portada trabajo universidad," she whispered to herself, typing the words into a search engine. A thousand rigid templates appeared: blue gradients, clip art globes, generic serif fonts. Universidad de Buenos Aires , she typed at the top. Then her name. Then the date.
She deleted the template. Instead, she opened a photo she had taken last winter: the university library at dawn, frost on the windows, light spilling from the third floor where she had spent hundreds of hours. She placed it as the background. Over it, she wrote: portada trabajo universidad
(The Cost of a Dream)
"The seal is inside," Sofía replied. And for the first time, she believed it. Then her name
It was supposed to be simple. A formality. But the cover page was the first thing Professor Méndez would see. The first judgment . Instead, she opened a photo she had taken
She thought of her father, a bricklayer who had never set foot in a university. Last week, he had asked, "So you just write your name on a fancy first page, and they give you a degree?" She had laughed, but now the question felt heavy. The portada was a threshold. On one side: the chaos of notes, coffee stains, and 3 a.m. breakthroughs. On the other: the polished lie that everything was under control.