Random musings

From the moment we learned to take our first step, next instinct was to continue taking another step, and another, and another, until we reach mommy's hand and giggle our way with our achievement. Everything begins with a first step, as the old adage says.

In learning our first steps, we trip, stumble, lose our balance, and fall to the ground. We cry at first, but somehow we learn and pick ourselves up and try again. This time, our destination isn't just mommy's arms. It can be a toy, a chocolate, or towards a favorite aunt or grandma. The more we got used to walking, we then turn it up a notch and learn how to run.

And with learning to run, we go through the same learning cycle. Only this time, since we've picked up speed, falling down means bigger bruises and cuts and wounds.

It's all about the money...

Yes.  They say money makes the world go round.  In some ways, there's a truth to the adage, and it also gives some people, groups, even nations an edge over others.

Early on, my mother taught me the value and how to value money.  Just because we have it does not necessarily mean we spend it all.  And yes, at an early age, I've learned the value of saving and frugality.

Fast-forward to growing up.  Every little aspect of our lives would involve some monetary transaction: bus fare, lunch, buying school supplies, quenching your thirst with a drink or two, paying for services rendered (as a student it would involve paying for photocopies of pages and pages of readings), and the list goes on.  Everyday details of our lives involve a lot of modern-day bartering, however mundane or trivial it may sound.  Suffice it to say, each person is a microcosm of the bigger economy that keeps the wheels turning and churning.

Economics was one of my least favorite subjects while I was still attending university.  During classes, the concepts seemed.. so alien to me.  It even came to the point, I started questioning myself whether my professor was just not good at being a teacher or that my level of comprehension was just shameful.  I've read the textbooks, supplementary readings, but my brain did not seem to absorb anything!

And then, the work I'm doing now is all about economics.  Monitoring economic news, developments, etc.  I was like, universe, what are you doing?

But as I go through the daily grind of work, I started appreciating the importance of economics in the minute and large scale.  Yes, the concepts are still alien to me, but I see it now as a challenge; to revisit an old puzzle and try to look at it, through different eyes.  I'm older now, hopefully wiser, and appreciated certain aspects of life I took for granted in my youth.

So now, I begin my course in macroeconomics.

And the journey begins.