*Lost Logger

Still Alive

Sorry it has been so long since updating you all. A ton of things have happened over the last month that i'll try to wrap it all up for you. I moved to south Boston, the deal was too good to pass up, rent is a little bit higher, but the amenities are well worth it. I also got a dog, he's an olde english bulldog. He is probably the coolest dog ever! I have begun my internship, which is going really well; off to a slower start, but looks to be picking up shortly. Also wrapping up the thesis to finish out the program. 1st draft is due on the 22nd. I also got a job offer, and will be starting that part time. It's an actual Economist position so I am really excited to start using some of my skills in a real world setting. I will keep you updated as more things happen. I guess I have started a lot of things, but nothing of note worth reporting on many of them. So I will let you know more as it comes. Have a wonderful 4th everyone!

Graduation

So just wanted to check back in graduation was awesome. It's nice getting recognized, but it's a bummer having to come back and write a thesis. When you're told you're done, you want to be done. My family was in town and being able to share this experience makes it so much more fun, even if I was the only one who deemed it appropriate to walk for my degree, I think there were 3 of us graduating, oh well I got my cool stuff.

I think it would be appropriate at this point to discuss what I've learned aside from the economics. This program has given me an education on myself. It has been a beneficial experience to realize what I want to do, more on who I am, and where I want to go. Over the last year I've realized that life isn't about how much money you make, although it helps. Live is about bettering yourself and those around you, and to be surrounded by those you love. I'm not saying that Suffolk was the cause of this personal revelation, but they didn't hurt. The program coupled with work, made for a stressful situation that could have only been handled with the support and care of those around me, and I am thankful everyday for them.

The program also taught me how to formulate my own arguments and to digest information. I think undergrad gives you the information you need to succeed, but never pushes you to make a stand or formulate a thought, they teach you everything has two sides, but the most important thing a masters has taught me is there is not black and white situation, so you must make a choice. This goes completely against my personal concept that I am always right because I know sometimes i'll be wrong, that's just the nature of gray areas, but at least I'll have a side, an opinion, and I'll be part of the discussion.

The last 2 things that really were interesting to me at graduation were: not everyone wants to do what you do, and start a career, don't get a job. The first one surprised me when i saw the excitement everyone had when graduating, these were people that put in long hard hours such as myself to become something completely different, and nothing I wanted to do. We get so wrapped up in our lives and think everyone is always gunning for what we want, but I was in a room with 200 people who wanted nothing to do with what I love to do.

The second point is a crucial point for me, and I think I realized it about 48 hours before being told by the graduation speaker. I've decided to leave a paid job for an unpaid internship for this reason. A career is a journey of growth and happiness, A job a task for cash. You should develop a career and do what you love, not what may pay the bills. This is hard especially in this economy, but still an important message. I'm not saying go work for free; I hope in the near future I'll be paid for these tasks, but the point is do what you love and pursue you're dreams, and everything will fall in place. Don't wake up in five years and say "what have I done with my life."

Marathon Monday

Happy Marathon Monday to all. Since most of the world is not working today, it's pretty mellow. And when I say most I mean just Boston and by that I mean only those with government jobs in Boston. Also of note, it's Patriots Day as well, and this is the actual reason people get today off. The running of the Boston Marathon is more of a a created overlap that the race officials created back in the 80s I think (don't quote me on that). From someone that has run a Marathon this year, I can tell you that the Boston Marathon is probably the biggest, and with the winner get some $150k, one of the most important races to some runners. I wish I would have the opportunity to see the race, but I've got some obligations today to a job that prevent me from attending any part of it. It also doesn't help that they start at 10 so should be done by around 4, but oh well. Like I said with St. Patty's Day, "maybe next year." (I missed that holiday to run the previously mentioned marathon).

On a side note I must comment that senioritis is a real thing, and it does infect those that attend grad school. The MSIE program being 1 year, forces senioritis from start to finish. The first semester, I chugges along, but now I am struggling to get productivity going in any direction. I honestly have 2 papers, a presentation on one of the papers, and a homework assignment to do before finals. One of the papers actually is my final so I really only have a few papers and 3 tests to power myself through, yet the urgency or drive to even leave my house is lacking. If anyone has any advice please feel free to let me know, as I have 2 weeks till it's all over and to essentially finish the classroom portion of this program.

In Honor of a Great Man

Tragedy is never an easy thing to address. One of my best friends has recently passed away and it's times like this that you can only come up with questions. He was a man with a zest for life and a never ending fountain of adventure. After graduation, he went off to found a Pearl Farm in Fiji, and I headed off to address my dreams of being in Finance.  Yes, I did say pearl farm; I told you he was an amazing individual. He recently passed due to unknown causes;he was a few months shy of his 24th birthday. Now not being one to force water from a rock. I will not try to glean from this tragedy a message. All I can say is that this man lived for live, and we should all be as lucky to live half as much as he did. He was a great friend, peer, mentor, roommate, brother, and teammate. And I hope we all attempt to live just one day to it's fullest.

Spring Break!

Happy Spring Break everyone. It was nice to take a break and go home and see my family for a week. It was really relaxing to get out of the cold Boston winter. The thing to note though, spring break does not dictate the fact that you actually get to take a break.

I've had to take a midterm today and I have 2 big homework assignments this week one of which culminates to a presentation on Tuesday. It's somewhat frustrating to not get a real break, but oh well I guess I cannot complain about getting additional learnings and knowledge from the program. I just wish I had the option to do these assignments earlier or later; we only found out about them last week.
So just remember there is always more work to do.

Snow Day

So for all those that don't like cold weather...walk, don't run away from Boston. It snowed and it's March, this doesn't happen anywhere else I've been.  Supposedly it stops snowing in April... really looking forward to the snow going away.

I had to go out of town this weekend for a family issue, and our flight got canceled on the way back, and we got in a day late and a dollar short (we had to pay for our hotel room). Good thing that happened was we had a Snow Day on Monday so I did not lose out on anything.

We are getting into Midterms right now as Spring Break is coming up in a little over a week. So there are tests for International Trade Theory and the second Midterm for International Monetary coming up, along with some big assignments for Global and Time Series.

 For Spring Break, I get the exciting trip of going to Little Rock, AR for part of spring break, should be exciting to just get to decompress, and hopefully the weather is nicer when i try to come back in. I'll keep you updated but for now as always it's hectic as anything, but still alot of fun. 73 days till Graduation. :)

Work, Work, Work

Well things have finally simmered down... I state that with pure sarcasm. We've really begun to crank up the volume on the work and in quantity and desired quality. This last week I had to give two presentations one on Global International Flows and the Second on Trade Costs of International Trade, and then I had to turn in my first Assignment for Time Series Methods.

Three day weekends just end up making me procrastinate more. by doing such exciting tasks as making countdowns of Time, Work, Days, and Dates. 86 days till graduation by the way. Although, it doesn't make much sense for me to countdown to graduation; it's a rather arbitrary date in general, it's like 2 weeks after finals. and the day before Summer School starts... so essentially I should be counting down to...whenever i get around to finishing my Topics paper, whatever day that may be.

At this point I'll just bank on graduation and play it by ear from there.

So on a much more depression note, has anyone seen the economy? wowzers this is not an ideal economy to be graduating and then looking for a job. Everyone is very hesitant to enter into the job market this coming year. It's a little late to look at now, but can anyone say Ph.D or MSF or MBA or anything to be a viable alternative to going to work.

Who knows what the Summer will bring, but it doesn't look good. Sometimes it's good to be an economist, and sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Hectic Times

It has been very hectic around here. I can't believe we're almost done with week 4 of school. It's like it's ending before it really even begins. I've given already two presentations and a paper in Global Data Analysis, and I have a test tomorrow in International Monetary, guess i'm not sleeping much tonight. It has been good though because these classes play very well off of each other and help us learn at a deeper level than if we just looked at the information and theory in one class.

Side note if you didn't already know the economy is terrible lately, and the job market in Boston is not very forgiving right now. I will let you know how all the tests go, but Wish me luck!

More Work, but it's Fun Work

So we're getting ramped up for the semester and it looks like it's going to be a bit more work than last semester. The nice thing is that it looks like it's gonna be alot of fun work though. Global Data Analysis and Forecasting are the classes I've ween waiting for to help boost my skills. With my desire to go into Economic Modeling and Investment Banking/Equity Research, these classes are paramount to building my skills in modeling and looking into the future.

I'm really excited, but with 7 presentations just for Global, it should keep this semester pretty fast paced. I'll keep you updated as we go. We've already given 1 presentation and it's only been 2 classes.

As a tangent: Boston is a cold place. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, and snow loses it's appeal quickly when you realize it makes everything slippery and gross. It's the price we pay to be in the Northeast, i guess.

Hello again

Happy Holidays! Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. it's been an exciting time to relax and get caught back up with what was going on in the world, but time to gear up and get back to the grindstone. Finals finished well and grades were generally as expected. Good to know that grades and curriculum run somewhat tandem. This should be an exciting semester, it is funny though that we are receiving information about graduation already. I've only taken a semesters worth! Masters programs are funny in that they're a year so much happens so quickly.

Looking forward to starting back up though. Got all my classes picked out and it should be nice not having to go to class Friday nights! Now I can at least pretend to be social and hear less ridicule from my friends when I can't go out. Note to self try and be somewhat social this semester, but it might kill me.