When I was at my first year at high school I had already completed the basic level of Maths and most of the required level of English. After one term I was studying grade D Maths and had completed all the required English. This left me with a lot of spare time that I tried filling with other courses that the school could offer. The courses I chose were German (which I failed) Programming (which I loved because of the teacher) and Accounting. This was a pivotal course for me. Not because it was something I enjoyed (accounting is not something to be enjoyed) but because it brought another level of knowledge and it effected so many of my future decisions.
After one year at high school, my parents and I were realising that that the high school couldn't offer the right type of stimulation for me. We got recommended the IB-Programme and once the new school year had started I was signed up at at IB and was taking the train everyday to the town that was 40km away.
For those who don't know what the IB-Programme is, you can find an explanation here.
To complete the IB-programme it is required to study at least one social subject. This was not really to my liking as I had often felt social subjects were a hazy area that would not lead to anything The ones I had to choose from was History, Psychology or Economics. Psychology was a straight no, I have always had a cautious approach towards this branch of science and, truth be told, I had not had a positive experience of psychologists which made me want to keep my distance from this subject. With my limited experience I assumed economics was equivalent to accounting, and as I had found the subject, if not fun, at least useful, Economics became my choice. It was probably the best wrongly based decision I have ever made.
My first lesson began with me receiving a 768 page thick book with the title "Economics - In Terms of The Good, The Bad and The Economist"
I opened it and from that moment I had no memory of what the teacher or my classmates were doing the rest of the course. I sat every lesson with my nose buried in the book, reading articles in the daily newspapers or The Economist and drawing graphs to explain the phenomenons that the articles so blatantly ignored. The book covered microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and development economics. I got to understand the reasoning behind micro-loans and what bilateral aid is and how it is used as leverage between companies. I could analyze how decisions effected the flow of money, the class division in a country and how the country's trade would look like. Suddenly every article I read had 5 different diagrams and 7 different analysis , all of them correct.
Since then, economics has been an subject that I will gladly discuss with anyone who is interested. And for those of you who cannot find the charm in economics, I recommend reading "Freakanomics"
After one year at high school, my parents and I were realising that that the high school couldn't offer the right type of stimulation for me. We got recommended the IB-Programme and once the new school year had started I was signed up at at IB and was taking the train everyday to the town that was 40km away.
For those who don't know what the IB-Programme is, you can find an explanation here.
To complete the IB-programme it is required to study at least one social subject. This was not really to my liking as I had often felt social subjects were a hazy area that would not lead to anything The ones I had to choose from was History, Psychology or Economics. Psychology was a straight no, I have always had a cautious approach towards this branch of science and, truth be told, I had not had a positive experience of psychologists which made me want to keep my distance from this subject. With my limited experience I assumed economics was equivalent to accounting, and as I had found the subject, if not fun, at least useful, Economics became my choice. It was probably the best wrongly based decision I have ever made.
My first lesson began with me receiving a 768 page thick book with the title "Economics - In Terms of The Good, The Bad and The Economist"
I opened it and from that moment I had no memory of what the teacher or my classmates were doing the rest of the course. I sat every lesson with my nose buried in the book, reading articles in the daily newspapers or The Economist and drawing graphs to explain the phenomenons that the articles so blatantly ignored. The book covered microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and development economics. I got to understand the reasoning behind micro-loans and what bilateral aid is and how it is used as leverage between companies. I could analyze how decisions effected the flow of money, the class division in a country and how the country's trade would look like. Suddenly every article I read had 5 different diagrams and 7 different analysis , all of them correct.
Since then, economics has been an subject that I will gladly discuss with anyone who is interested. And for those of you who cannot find the charm in economics, I recommend reading "Freakanomics"
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