Started from the bottom now we're here

As a senior at LUMS, this is the time of the year for me when the 'last' of everything related to undergraduate starts. Among other lasts, there is the last PDC meal, last table tennis match, last day in the hostel, last class, last exam and last blog.

For this blog, I could give a summary of all that we have done in this class. But I don't want to do that. What I want to write about instead is a little something which I learnt during my time at LUMS. 

I transferred to LUMS from IoBM, which is a university in Karachi. At IoBM, I enrolled in Media Studies. Ours was the first batch of media studies and since our curriculum wasn't entirely developed, we were given a scheduled list of classes which we had to enroll in. 

By and by, I realized that IoBM was not providing me with the highest quality of education and hence, I joined LUMS in pursuit of greener pastures. 

When I joined LUMS, I came with the goal of majoring in Economics. However, in my freshmen year I enrolled in the course called 'Introduction to Western Political Philosophy' and it intrigued me to such an extent that I decided to opt for  a major in Politics and Economics instead. 

In my sophomore year, however, through pure chance (and ROs wonderful inefficiency) I got enrolled in the course 'Introduction to Cultural Anthropology' by Sadaf Ahmed. I got hooked. However, since I enjoyed politics and economics as well, I decided not to switch my major but instead I opted for a minor in Anthropology and Sociology. 

What I would strongly advice all the freshmen, sophomores and even juniors to do, is to not limit themselves to predetermined courses and an already set major. Sure, I realize that sometimes students know exactly what they want to pursue and that's great. However, I would strongly encourage everyone- those who are sure or unsure about their preference- to not restrict their academic experience to a single subject. The best thing about coming to a university like LUMS is that it allows you a substantial amount of choice and diversity as far as courses are concerned. Take it from someone like me, who was force enrolled in all her courses at IoBM; these range of courses which LUMS offers is one of the best things about this institution, Taking courses from different disciplines not only allows one to make a more informed choice about their major but also widens their perspective. 

I've taken math, management, history, law, economics (duh), political science (duh), english, anthropology and computer science courses at LUMS. Enrolling myself in all these courses helped me realize the subjects that I'm truly passionate about. And at the same time, it enriched my LUMS experience. 

So that's the piece of (unsolicited, lol) advise I would give to all the students who have yet to graduate. 

As far as this course is concerned, I would just say that I'm so glad that on that last day of enrollment Theory of IR was the only open POL course left. 

Thank you Sir Nausherwan for such a brilliant semester : )