What I Regret about My Freshman Year

날짜: 2022.11.21

 

<What I Regret about My Freshman Year>

 

[Who I am]

One of the mottos I live by is “Leave No Regrets.”

 

Well aware of the fact that actions have consequences, I am quite far from living a life full of regrets. However, in retrospect, new regrets come to light, and one of the most recent ones is how I spent my freshman year.

 

[Where I am]

Five days till army dischargement. My mandatory service to the Korean army has finally come to its very end. 548 days of war preparation, a war that is highly (i prefer ‘completely’) unlikely to happen. With only five days left, my interests have begun to shift. I’ve put aside the career prep of studying deep learning, statistics, and programming and picked up economics and investment (링크 걸기 )related books. Why the sudden change of interest? The fact of finally returning to society, to college, to reality has awakened the financial panic monster within me. No longer dormant, the finance monster reminds me everyday that reality is no warm place. It doesn’t feed you, provide you with shelter, or offer education unless you earn and work for it. Now I have to face some REAL problems rather than ponder about how to flee the barracks.

 

[New Priorities & New Interests]

The recent changes have shed light on the importance of money and financial stability. What better way to befriend money than studying and reading economics and investment related books. So my journey began with some random Korean books as well as some notable books including “What Money Can’t Buy (Michael Sandel)”, “The Psychology of Money”, “If it’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks.”

 

[The Regrets]

Grinding through several books of the same field showed me new patterns. The most recognizable one is “You should know How Economics Work!” I would have been proud that I, in fact, took an economics course during my Freshman year. The problem is I never truly cared about the subject, which led to not paying attention, getting a lower than expected grade, and forgetting everything.

 

I overlooked the truth of college courses. Often the most important fundamentals that can potentially support and guide my journey to a new interest lies within the boring lectures and homeworks. In 2020, I was too stupid and arrogant to completely invest myself in college courses. I made excuses to find shortcuts to finishing homeworks, getting good grades and ignored my true passion to learn something great.

 

Realizing this somewhat uncomfortable truth, it’s my responsibility to no longer be the same arrogant, gpa crazy student but a passionate, modest guy.