My First Year Now Behind Me!

We had our micro exam tonight and I am now officially done with my first year of my PhD!!! I am so elated to have this first year behind me! In many ways, this is both the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.

I’ve made some mistakes along the way, had some successes too, learned a tremendous amount of material, met some terrific people, have made friendships I hope will last a lifetime, been in the richest intellectual environment of my life, gotten involved with a good church in DC, reconnected with old friends, started this blog, have experienced tears of triumph and tears of sorrow, and overall had a great time! I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. It’s especially nice being 45-minutes from all my immediate family for my first time in over 15 years!

After our exam, a bunch of us went out to Brion’s, a local restaurant, in celebration of surviving our first year. I will be traveling to Alaska for a few weeks and it started hitting me how much I’m going to miss all my friends. It’s both weird and touching how much you can really bond with people when you share experiences together like this. I can’t wait for Alaska, but also know it will be a happy return to come home.

This summer, I will be preoccupied with preparing for our upcoming prelims this fall. I hate to start thinking about it already, but one of the things I’ve learned (the hard way) this year is that it’s never too early to start studying. This runs counter to my procrastinating nature, but I can’t afford to do otherwise.

One of my biggest challenges this year has been macroeconomics. This is where I hope to aim my sights first this summer. I came into the program with virtually zero economics background and I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. I think I’m holding my own in micro okay, but macro is a different story. It is time for me to change this and my plan is to start ASAP. Reading Mankiw’s book was a tremendous eye-opener to me while studying for finals. It would have served me tremendously well to have discovered it a year ago. However, all of that is now a sunk cost. What’s past is past, and I can only go forward from here. I aim to learn from my mistakes and continue forward.

Some personal goals for the summer:

• Become an expert on macroeconomics – learning it frontwards and backwards!
• Learn differential equations again and also do a good review of linear algebra. (I was out of school for 12 years and have gotten a little rusty on a number of things.) I think this will help me out tremendously in trying to get a better grasp of some of the macroeconomic models we’ve been studying.
• Try to get through a solid understanding of at least 1-2 economics books per week.
• Solidify my understanding of microeconomics.
• Enjoy spending time with Mom, Dad, Kevin Marsha, Madeline, and Grady.
• Experience Alaska!
• Do a tremendous job at Mercatus and assist Karol Boudreaux in working on Enterprise Africa. I can’t imagine a more important research program to be involved with than that of poverty relief and economic development.
• Become an expert on macroeconomics!
• Visit my friends in Orlando. They are like family to me and I miss them tremendously.
• Explore more of DC!
• A possible trip to the Northeast? (After Alaska, I will only have five more states left to visit – New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. If I don’t visit them this summer, I hope to sometime in the Fall.)
• Get a new computer. (My Sony laptop is now on it’s SIXTH motherboard and failing again. It is time to get it replaced.)
• Think long and hard about being a resident advisor again. It’s been great financially, but has certainly impacted my grades (and my sanity!) this year. I really could use the extra time it would free-up.
• Spend time hanging out with friends, family, and faculty members. One of the things that has been great here at Mason is the collegial atmosphere the faculty share with the students. They are the most approachable of any faculty I’ve seen anywhere.
• Did I mention becoming an expert at macro?

Some lessons learned this year:

• There is a limit to what my body and brain can handle. Sometimes the best thing I can do is nothing for a little while.
• I’ve needed to learn how to study again.
• I’ve forgotten many things I thought I knew.
• Faith, family and friends are what make life most worth living.
• Two part-time jobs and an overloaded academic schedule (12 hours) make for one overloaded, exhausted Brian. I need to set better limits for myself and make some better trade-offs. My grades and my energy suffered because of this.
• Related to this – I talk and think a lot about margin. It’s time for me to start building some of this into my schedule and my life.
• I can be quite happy and content living with minimal possessions in a very small space. It’s weird going from Orlando where I was thinking of buying a house to living in an 8’ by 12’ room. I know I’m much happier doing what I’m doing than I would have ever been buying a house.
• Life is a series of trade-offs. Sometimes the good has to be sacrificed for the sake of the best.
• My family is there for me no matter what. I’ve always known this, but it’s also wonderful every time I have a reminder of this. Mom, Dad, Kevin, Marsha, Aunt Ruth – everyone has been incredibly supportive of me in my academic endeavor and everything else I’ve done. I love you all!
• Sometimes I need to ask for help. This is something that’s always been hard for me to do. I don’t know why?
• I have friends who truly care for me. Between them and my family, I am truly blessed!
• My failures (and successes) shape me, but they do not define me.
• There is no shame in struggle.
• It is sometimes a battle to keep my faith at the forefront of my life. This is a fight well worth fighting and essential for living a happy life.
• God has blessed me in tremendous ways and I am ashamed to think how few times I stop to give thanks.
• Prayer is powerful. It changes the world and it changes me.
• It’s never too late to start on a new journey in life.
• There is often more joy in the simple things in life than in the grander things.
• Having goals and making progress towards them helps keep you happy and feeling alive.
• Striving in the directions of my dreams has been a dream.
• Man cannot live on ramen noodles alone!

Just a few random thoughts I wanted to share…

I still can’t believe the year is over! Regardless of how my grades turn out, I have absolutely no regrets about my decision to come back to school or my decision to come here to GMU. I can’t describe how great it is to feel this way about something. I really feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.

Well, I think it is time to get to bed. With my first year now behind me, something tells me I will sleep very soundly this night!