Despite being sleep deprived, emotionally exhausted, and leaning towards antisocial tendencies (I am in the midst of my last round of finals), my classmate and confidant Amanda charmed me into going to the “Teacher of the Year” award ceremony. To our pleasant amazement, our “favorite” professor won. For a brief moment he was even my thesis advisor, patiently introducing me into the world of advanced health econometrics (more on that later..).

Always the one to support the “underdog”,  I came prepared to route for him despite the prevailing undertones among our classmates that he may not win. Not that many students are disgruntled with his teaching style. Rather it is simply a matter of numbers- the voting system included undergraduates (the majority of the voting population) who never had the privilege of being taught by him. Nonetheless, we were all pleasantly surprised and proud that all his hard work and efforts were finally recognized. He was even gracious enough to give his sweet acceptance speech in English (as personally requested by me). 

It’s times like these, when you can share in the brief moment of joy in someone’s accomplishments despite the odds that inspire me to keep trying in what ever I set my heart to. Like the story of the toy train engine, I am the “little economist that could”.

One more official month of madness (finals and papers) till a much anticipated Eurotrip (roadtrip) through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy (and possibly France) for two weeks (or maybe three…). The first part of the trip has already been booked, courtesy of my neurosis in making sure that the plan goes through.  One can only dream can’t they?

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