While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery. - Groucho MarxOn this blog I'm going to take an intermission of my usual nonsense, and introduce some facts on why I decided to do all this. Why I became passionately interested in economics, why I decided to apply for business school and finally, why I decided to start writing this humble, but yet so unexpectedly popular blog of mine.
Ever since I was a child, I already noticed that it is the money that unfortunately makes the world go around most of the time. Because of money, my parents were going to work every single day and because of money I was prefered to get a decent education. I reckoned that money is an important matter in the everyday-life, and I consider that our family didn't have much of it. Even when I got the money, I spent days and days of thinking were should I invest my money or should I just save it for the rainy day.
But my story with economics starts from the year 2010, when I decided to apply for the International Diploma Programme of my hometown. I'm still not sure why I did it nor any of my friends are. For those of you who don't know what the so called IB-Programme was, it was basically going through the 3 years of high school in the English language. The biggest differences were that only 6 subjects were studied and the programme consisted of compulsory extra-curriculum activities. The 6 subjects were studied intesively and the students were encouraged to critical thinking.
Of those 6 subjects I decided to choose Economics as one of my subjects. The thing that struck me in the subject was this: it was easy to understand. All the theories and fundamental laws made complete sense in my head. Everything in the world seemed to follow the law of supply and demand and all the people seemed to live to maximize their utility. Although my physics-studies with quantum-mechanics and astrophysics widened my perception of the microworld, economics offered me a chance to understand the macroworld around me better. I magically started to understand how the world works and what exactly is in the news. So for 3 years I studied the basics of microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and development economics.
Not to mention how much I enjoyed, and still enjoy applying the Game Theory and the theory of marginal utility, for instance, in a silly way while going through everyday activities. (Battle of the Sexes is one of my favorites)
From that point on it was clear to me as the skies above to apply for business school to continue my studies. I didn't possess much interest in marketing, management or accounting, but nevertheless I was prepared to go through all of them to get the acceptance for the Bachelor's and for the Masters Programmes in Economics.
I got accepted with the first trial and my studies began in a town near to my hometown in 2014. And boy, was I alone. I'm ashamed to admit but the people seemed to fit in all the stereotypes I've heard that the students in business schools are like. It felt so hard for me to adapt and find friends from my new community. During the first year the general atmosphere felt so bad, that I really started to wonder would this really really be my thing. But my passion towards economics was so intense, that I was willing to deal with all the things just for the sake of myself. I was not willing to give up.
I got accepted to the major of economics for my Bachelor's and Master's Programme. However, a reformed degree structure was introduced during 2014 and people were recommended to change to study all the subjects in Economics and Business Administration for 3 years, before specializing for one major for the Master's Programme. And so did I as well.
It was awful. Courses and topics in marketing, management and accounting were pain for me. I felt like I couldn't be any less interested in SWOT or the BCG-matrice. That also lowered my motivation towards my passion, but I still decided not to give up. I would make it for the 3 years and then start deepening my understanding from the field of economics and finance.
During the second year things were different. I started dating, started to find connections and friends from the business school and found all the courses more interesting. Especially the course in Monetary Economics woke the fire inside my towards the school. I again remembered why I was there and the other subjects besides economics seemed to be a bonus, still widening my perspective on the general characteristics of the business environment. Also when I had spent more time in the business school, the people seemed to be all right after all.
During spring of 2016 my world crashed heavily. I got a call that my dad would have approximately one week to live. He was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months before and things were getting worse. I had to live with the fact that I'm going to lose him soon.
My dad used to drive the truck, the bus and the taxi. He was a car-mechanic and his dream was his own shop in my hometown. As you might guess, he didn't even exactly know what I was studying and what my passion was. He just saw that my passion is money-related stuff and I'm hopefully going to make much money out of it. He supported me 100 % although he didn't know anything about the Heckscher-Ohlin-model of international trade or monetarism.
Unfortunately, the cancer was stronger than my dad and I lost him in April 2016.
After that week I spent a lot of time of thinking about life and what were the significant things for me in my life. I decided that the best way to continue is to continue my studies and chase my goals passionately as my dad would have wanted and hoped.
It was exactly then when I wrote my first blog. I felt like I wanted and needed to share my thoughts in my own personal way. I wanted to show what I was interested about and what I had to say..
But I was so uncertain. I thought that people would lynch me on the basis of "Why are you trying to be so smart in the social media?". "Do you really think that someone would care?".
To my great surprise, people cared. Friends and people in the business school were almost daily commenting on my writings and were sincerely asking about the next one and giving ideas. I was astonished. It really felt like the cliche of just being yourself and neglecting what other people think would give you the most happiness and freedom.
The second shock came about a month ago when I was not accepted for the Master's Programme in Economics. I thought that the game would be finally over. I despised and hated the whole application system and judged it as totally unfair for the students. Students were allocated to the majors according to their Grade Point Average. Even though there were 12 positions for economics, and I was one of the 8 who applied for the subject as their first alternative, I didn't get in. I was so angry.
I was desperate at looking all the options I would still have left to keep clinging on the weak branch. My friends seemed to be more shocked than me, which I appreciated a lot. They told me to complain about the matter but I thought it wouldn't help anything. Nevertheless, I decided to relieve my anxiety in a form of complaint for the school.
But for my great surprise my complaint went through. The board considered my complaint as adequate. According to the board, my decision to change my degree structure in 2014 was based more on the suggestion to change than my own personal consideration. And it was true, I didn't considered fully the consequences of the change would affect my later studies. By taking notion of all the circumstances, I was awarded the position in the Master's Programme in Economics.
I was back on track to pursue a career with my passion: economics and finance.
There's also one motive behind this story that I want you all to remember. If I've learned something from these past 6 years, is that if you have a passion, don't give up. Although everything would feel awful and the people and the system would tell you that it is not possible, still don't give up. The goals we set for ourselves and our passions keep us in motion and make us achieve things thought to be unreachable. Whether it's economics, engineering, interior design or cultural anthropology.
And the people around you are the right people if they believe in you more than you believe in yourself.
Text: SW
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