On a sunny day

#learn

I have written so many reflection reports recently yet forgot to write one for myself. So this is the self-reflection report for the first year in my Business Analytics master's course.

1. Introduction

I tend to go into the very details of the story's beginning. I believe that the motivation will impact 90% of how the story is told.

Every thought came as a piece of the puzzle now for me actually. Lemme try to cover stories in chronological order.

Can I go back to 2018? I still remember when my roommate asked me what I wanna do in the future, I told her that I'd definitely go for a higher degree, cause I loved learning. That was also when I started my first orders in my assignment help journey, most of which are for uni in Australia. So I added, probably I'd go to Australia but who knows~. I didn't know she did care about such a random thought like that, not until reading her farewell letter, which she wrote 希望你以后可以去自己梦想的澳大利亚。

其实也不算什么梦想。但我真的去了澳大利亚了！

It wasn't about the problem of choosing what to go for. I had a kinda clear plan in my mind about my master's major since I was still doing my undergraduate degree. Everything that came in between was justtt the pandemic and my laziness to apply for the US visa. My prep time was mostly spent on complaining about the 2.98 GPA (like wtf I was that close to 3.0!), postponing studying for GMAT, and worrying about the loan ahead.

2021 was a hard year for me. I was supposed to start my study in September if things had been going on track. At that time I was working remotely for a startup which allowed me to explore every part of a business – I was literally doing the BDSM jobs – Business development, sales, and marketing. As much as I loved the opportunities that I could be exposed to different areas, I knew that I wasn't fit into any of them. Fortunately, it was also the time when I had great monthly meetups with my boss, who guided me through the uncertainties. Thanks for trusting my Excel skills although it really sucked. Finally, there was someone else except my sister who believed I can do well with numbers.

Even with that encouragement, I was kinda drowning in the water. My sis came back and asked me about my study plan. I said I had no idea. It was hard to go to the US, considering the tuition fees, living cost, and some visa-related issues. I wouldn't go to Europe either, which I knew for sure. I spent four months in a country where I didn't understand local languages and it was not very good. I crossed UK out of the shortlist because I prefer Asian communities like in Canada and Australia. Then Australia was chosen because I don't like snow :)

The part about choosing school was an even more hilarious story. Should I say I chose my school out of my curiosity because during my four-year experience of doing assignment help, I had never seen its name in my orders. First impression was so important that after much consultation with the agent, I still nailed in to Deakin.

Everything happening after that turned out to be super fast and I couldn't believe it went so smoothly. Got a call from the agent the night right before my 24th birthday, and then more than one month later, I got the visa and a one-way ticket to Melbourne.

It was exactly one year ago.

2. Reflections

Geez, it's still somehow unbelievable for me. One year for someone with number-phobia to learn statistics (again –.–), database, data analytics and machine learning using Python, R, a bit of SQL, and some other tools. I think I did a lot better than in my undergraduate course. I also never stopped thinking how lucky I am, to have a big sister, and to be supported by my lovely family.

Halfway to my graduation, I've learned that how and why you learn something is much much more important than what you learn. There were things that I did study in FMT, even more than once, but I could never understand, let alone using them, because I was forced to study if I wanna earn that damn degree. It was much much better to know how and why learning something helps. One more thing I learned is that, learn the discipline and all the tools will use that discipline. It was not until the third trimester that I understood why the lecturers kept saying so. (But again, I still believe that learning how to use the tool is a great shortcut, so it's best to keep a balance).

To review, here's what I'd been doing in my first school year.

3. Conclusion

THAT IS TO BECOME A UX RESEARCHER PRODUCT OWNER.

To be continued someday..

-Phuong 🐯