By maxikaplan
A funny thing happened this week when I made a presentation in my Economic History of Britain class. My topic would not have been quite as intimidating were it not for the fact that I was speaking to a class of students primarily from Britain about why their motor industry had failed. To make matters worse, the state of the motor industry in the U.S. was needed as a comparison. And if that was not enough to make me watch my words, the president of the Economic History society at London School of Economics was in my class as well, ready to pick apart any flaw in my argument.
I was not too worried, however, about the reasoning behind my presentation because I thought that it was sound, and if I could back it up with facts then I knew it could not turn out too bad. What struck me as difficult was trying to maintain my audience’s trust without being too partial towards the success of the US and the failure of Britain’s industries. That is when I realized that the challenge of walking such a fine line is never an easy task but that it comes up incredibly often in life, and that LSE was, at least, preparing me for these situations that I’ll have to face at some point in the future. I’m thankful towards LSE for moments like this, even if it causes me quite a bit of stress.
After the week kicked off on that unusual note, I made a point to do more of what I have been guilty of not doing lately: seeing London. This is an especially busy time of year at school, and with a few interviews coming up I looked towards these excuses as a way to justify my lack of travel, but in the end we never really are satisfied with excuses. So I made my way with a friend to the northern part of London, which didn’t require much planning considering it was only a 20 minute bus ride away. But London can certainly amaze by how different sections of its city are that are so close-by to each other. With work building up it is always hard to remember to appreciate the city and my experience here in general, and each time I go for these mini-excursions I realize how much there is to appreciate. Our trip turned out to be an interesting night, culminating somehow at a jazz club that was incredible.
Thanksgiving is coming up, which means my next two weeks, and therefore my next two blog posts, should be particularly interesting. My brother is coming to visit me who studies in Austria, so I will have much to report. For now, it is back to work.