In previous posts, I have talked about what motivated me to study Economics. What you don't know yet is how I ended up studying it. Back in secondary school, I was an excellent student. I did fine in most of the subjects but in the end, I had to make a choice about my future college studies. And I had 14 different options:

Economics, Philosophy, Chemistry, Journalism, Business Administration, Finance and International Relations, Modern Languages, Industrial Engineering (a mix of Engineering, Business and Economics), Mathematics, Anthropology, Law, Literature...and a couple of options more I don't remember now.

Given my wide range of choices, I was put into some sort of psychological analysis to determine my best choice; I recently found the papers with the results, and among other things, it says:

"Leda's preferences and interests' profile is inclined towards office jobs or company's jobs, with activities that require precision. Even if the calculus component is not high, this can be taken into account, because Leda has aptitudes and ability for working with numbers. She could find satisfaction being a professional of Economics, Business Administration, Finance or Engineering.  Her interest for literature is a complement of this and is natural in people who enjoy reading or verbally or orally expressing ideas. As an isolated occupation it would not be of her total enjoyment".

So finance was a good candidate, but it here is was not taught as a separate degree, but together with international relations. My father put me off saying that it was a mixture of too many disciplines so I did not stand a professional of any of these when looking for a job. In the end, engineering was not a good idea because I didn’t like physics, and Business Administration seemed not to have enough mathematical background: The result, Economics.

It is funny how I did not forget about my other interests. I still love learning languages so during college I learned French and now I'm trying my hands at Japanese. If I don’t feel like following anymore “main stream” economics, I can always turn to the French school, which is also very interesting. I still love reading; I am avid for information so I read everything I can. I still like to write, that's why I have my own private journal and enjoy writing this blog: In economics, this has helped me a lot because it is very important to write properly and to express oneself in a clear way, especially when explaining abstract models to people outside this field.  As an economist one has defend or attack a model, so I am some sort of a lawyer of whatever I embark on. Not much chemistry in my life, though... But I don't miss it at all.

What were your choices to study what you study? Why did you end up doing what you do?

Because as an economist my other interests have been able to complement and enhance my carreer, today we're back on the game with a score from this field.