If I Coulda Done it Differently...

I tend to be a 'no ragrets' person. One can't change the past, and it's silly to carry emotional baggage for what's no longer within one's control. That being said, I'm at the point in life where I have to ask the big question, 'what's next?' As I come to the close of my life's latest 4-year plan, I'm being forced to think not only about what I want to do, but what I actually can do.

Having taken not a single physics class in college, it's unlikely I could launch into a PhD in Astrophysics (ahhhhh, see what I did there? launch into astrophysics!). But I also haven't much of a desire to do that, so no worries on that front (lucky it's not the final frontier! I'm on fire today).

While at Saint Mike's I took a breadth of classes. And I'f I'm being honest, I never really found a niche of academia that called to me louder above the others. I dabbled a lot, because I couldn't nail down what I wanted to study above all else. I declared my Econ major at the end of my fall semester junior year. That is very, very late to declare a major, and even then my decision was driven by the necessary fact that I graduate in the near future. None of this is to say that I don't like my major; from my perspective the Econ dep't is stacked with people I'd love to be as smart as in my wildest dreams. I even got to do research with Prof. Walsh last semester, and Prof Natarajan is advising me for my thesis research this semester. I've learned a lot from my experience as a student in that department, but after four years I've come to realize I love being a student. Of what? Well... lots and lots of things.

In fact, just to give you a glimpse of the variety of classes I've taken, here's a literal snapshot:

Course/Section and Title Credits Term EC-311 A Macroeconomic Theory 4.00 2014/FA EC-315 A World Economies 4.00 2014/FA EC-410 A Senior Seminar in Economics 4.00 2014/FA HO-301 A Honors Colloquium 2.00 2014/FA PH-103 A Pursuing Wisdom 4.00 2014/FA EC-103 B Princ of Microeconomics (HON) 4.00 2014/SP MA-120 E Elementary Statistics 4.00 2014/SP PO-365 A Multicultural Theory/Practice 4.00 2014/SP SP-203 A Third Semester Spanish 4.00 2014/SP AN-333 A Anthropology of Refugees 4.00 2013/FA EC-333 A Economics of Education 4.00 2013/FA PO-101 A Introduction to Politics(HON) 4.00 2013/FA SO-221 A Race and Ethnic Relations 4.00 2013/FA BI-153 F Intro Cell Biology & Genetics 4.00 2013/SP BI-205 A Biological Communications 4.00 2013/SP CH-117 C Organic Chemistry I 4.00 2013/SP EC-325 A Economics of Health Care 4.00 2013/SP BI-151 C Intro to Ecology & Evolution 4.00 2012/FA CH-110 A General Chemistry I 4.00 2012/FA EC-101 A Prncpl Macroeconomic (Honors) 4.00 2012/FA GS-308 A AdvTpcs: Gender & Development 4.00 2012/FA RS-242 B Christians and Muslims 4.00 2012/FA AN-310 B Native American Cultures 4.00 2012/SP FR-203 A Third Semester French 4.00 2012/SP FS-103 A Essays and Essayists 4.00 2012/SP RS-120 H Christianity: Past and Present 4.00 2012/SP AN-109 A Introduction to Anthropology 4.00 2011/FA FR-101 B First Semester French 4.00 2011/FA HI-161 A Early Latin America 4.00 2011/FA MA-150 B Calculus I 4.00 2011/FA

Like I said, I love being a student... but of what?

So my one takeaway is this: if I could do it all over again, I would have taken more math classes.

'That's kind of a strange takeaway, why do you say that, Ben?'

I've come to the realization that if I want to go to grad school to study econ (which I do), I'll need a heck of a lot more background in math in order to apply my econ knowledge at that level. Plus, I really like math. I was always a strong math student, and I think that mathematical thinking translates well into the fields of philosophy and theory, both of which interest me. So, yeah, I wish I would have taken more math.

But at the expense of not having taken one of these courses... I'm cool with doing some post-grad math courses before I apply to grad school. I gained a huge base of knowledge from being exposed to all these subjects, and I wouldn't change that even if I had a time-turner (I'm looking at you HP fans).

Til next time, and thanks for reading!