Hi, I’m Vince. I’m a 20 year old soon-to-be-student at the LSE whose greatest achievement to date has been growing a fully-fledged moustache. We’re talking Teddy Roosevelt after his PR guy took him to a barber for a light trim that “voters are going to love”.

I’m from Sydney, Australia. If you don’t know much about Sydney, then the main thing to know is we don’t have Winter. Seriously. 15 Celsius is a miserable day. So with that in mind I’m sure the natural thing your asking is why I would leave my clean, well-lighted place (Hem fans anyone?) for London. Which, I would say, is rather not like Sydney. Rather not like it at all actually.

I guess the short answer to that is that you’re asking the wrong question. I could ask why haven’t you moved to Acapulco (the 50s Acapulco, not Acapulco today… google it) and learned how to live off fish and sunlight like the guy in the Old Man and the Sea? Ok, I’ll stop with the Hemingway references. And no more Sinatra either, don’t worry.

It’s because there’s more to life than the weather. The weather’s important but no one’s only getting out of bed in the morning cause it’s a nice day. The lucky among us have been fortunate to find things in our lives that excite us. For me, that’s been economics for a while now. It’s got the logical rigour of a science while still keeping a close enough eye on human psychology to be a branch of philosophy. It’s that blend I love. While I have done it in high school, there’s still so much I don’t know. Questions like: what’s the difference between the price of something and its value, why do some have so much and some so little and how did Spain’s economy collapse almost immediately after stealing all of South America’s gold? There’s answers to all these. I’ve come to LSE to get them.

So, to sum up, I can’t wait to start at LSE. I chose this uni (and like all good romances, they chose me too) because I couldn’t find anything that came close to giving me the global view I’m going to need if I’m to understand global problems (also I’m scared of America – for a lot of reasons – so that was out). Seriously though, a university that attracts top student and teaching talent from every part of the globe. Teaching a subject I’ve been reading the literature on for the last five years (Smith and Piketty aren’t as unfriendly as they’re made out). In a global city.

I can’t see a reason not to be excited.

Vince

PS – This post was written before I started but I thought it could still be useful