Being an avid television junkie, and subsequently brought up by television, as is the case for the majority of my generational peers, I chose my subjects for the International Baccalaureate (IB) with the strict intention to progress into a career in marketing and advertising.

​

Business Management as a higher level introduced me to the world business. Before this point, I simply saw companies and brands from the point of view of the consumer, only focusing on the superficial facade of a much greater functioning machine. Learning about profit and loss accounts, balance sheets and decision trees among so many more (at the time) alien concepts opened my eyes to how much actually goes into running a business and the tough decisions managers and owners might need to make behind the scenes to stay competitive or even viable in an ever changing market. This was also my first encounter with marketing concepts like SOSTAC, something I would only grow to appreciate the value of later in my undergraduate study.

​

Literature and Language proved to be a stronger fit for me than English Literature alone as the former integrated television and print works, including advertisements. I was so taken with this class that I ended up writing my extended essay on Star Wars, analyzing the story of Darth Vader and his development from a critic's perspective, titled simply: Who is "Darth Vader?". This proved to be the perfect opportunity for me to put an IP that I was passionate about under the microscope and explore what drew me to it and apply what I had learned about art direction and literary techniques. On the literature side of things, we looked at iconic print advertisements and copy.

​

Psychology as a higher level course helped me get into the mindset of a scientist testing theories and exploring concepts relating to modern-day consumer behavior. Diving into the cognitive and socio-cultural levels of analysis captured my interest and challenged the way I saw and experienced human behavior and actions. Psychology also introduced me to the scientific method and opened me up to both primary and secondary research. Later in my career, I would continue to refer to studies i learned in my classes, applying them to coursework in my bachelors and masters degrees. I also found myself developing an interest in mental health and how the battle of nature vs nurture affected everyone and in many cases was left unaddressed.

​

Theory of Knowledge (ToK), the study of knowing, radically called into question everything I knew to be true in the world. It served as a class of philosophy and morality and questioned previously held beliefs in an incredibly abstract way. I enjoyed this class as it led me to discover my own values and opened my mind to thought experiments that had no concrete black or white answers. Here, we analysed the trolley car problem and explored the value of a human life. This class lent itself well to my psychology class as I gained a whole new appreciation for the reasons certain decisions were made more appealing and why (on an individual level) some choices were seen as more humane as other ones. My innate curiosity only grew further as I began to question everything in my life I had previously taken for granted, from trivial questions like how I responded to certain stimuli, all the way to what my purpose was in the cosmic blink of an eye we call the human lifespan.