Nerdilicious

I am a nerd.

It's something I would not have admitted to a few years ago. But here I am, a self-respecting nerd. I was always on the look out for something to make me happy - something mature. Since I left high school, I believed having no major or direction would be better than having the "incorrect" major or direction. I tried to a few different things, but found all of them unsatisfying. I wanted to pursue many different fields and did not commit to any specific one. I was unintentionally waiting for something else to come along that was even more attractive. Bit by bit, I figured out what I liked to do and what I didn't like to do.

What did I like to do? It turns out I had known all along: I love to be creative and experiment with the world around me to see what happens and why it will happen. It was something I had known since I was a kid playing around with Legos, learning about the world through the TV, and wondering what would happen if I messed around with the circumstances and introduced animals to different places. People are (only) slightly different from animals and collecting data from people is far easier than collecting data from animals. I want to study the data patterns and trends - something economics lets me do.

Unfortunately, it took a while for me to understand this about myself. I started with wanting to do "important" and "relevant" government things to gain recognition from others. When I wanted to do something more in that area, it turned out I needed a graduate degree. To pursue a graduate degree, I did research for one summer in economics because it is something I am above-average at. Left to my own devices over the summer and struck with a near-terminal case of boredom I found myself thinking of ideas to research... and loving it.

I do not believe in destiny, but if you look around for long enough, you will find something you like to do!