About Me — Alex Elkjær Vasegaard
I would like to start with something abrupt, something that really sa..
Yeezus, who am I? I could show you a list of my research papers, pictures from my Instagram (only showcasing the superficial, positive things in my life), or some of the medium stories I have written — indirectly showcasing my interests. Hmm, decisions, decisions. Life is full of decisions. The best strategy is probably just to put out information that is relatable, interesting, and fun — but aren’t we back at the superficial thing again? I’ll try this instead.
6 quick odd info’s
- Favourite movie is La La Land despite my favourite genre being Sci-Fi. Yeah, think about that.
- I love to play football (soccer), but don’t watch it. On the other hand, I love to watch basketball but don’t play it.
- My first job was at a farm where I cleaned the hoof of the cows and applied iodine on their teats. Yes.
- I have jumped over 185 cm in high-jump
- Did you notice I only wrote 4? well, 5 if you count that one… Aya, now I have to come up with a last one — I guess me feeling “obligated to finish the list” technically could count as the 6th. Jobs doonee? But now we’re at it, depending on how you count information, there are numerous pieces of information in the first 3 points. Can you actually quantify information? This is getting stupid.
Who was I?
When I was younger, I never thought about adapting to other people. I was happy, almost trapped in my imagination. My parents used to say a plane could crash in front of me without me noticing. I loved drawing and did it as much as possible to get some of my thoughts into the real world. I just did things. As I got older, I became more quiet, shy and reserved. I found comfort in things, imagination, manga, books, and movies rather than people. Well, I looked up to my uncles, grandfathers, and dad, who all were (and are) incredibly hard-working people that loved to joke around and have fun. At some point, that side of me kind of took over. I guess the introduction of alcohol worked as a catalyst in that process. It happened pretty quickly, which spiralled me into a sort of personality crisis in my late teens and early twenties — of course, still appearing as a happy bright young man to everyone else.
As a consequence, I just rolled with life. I never really felt I believed in anything enough to put out my opinion, never offended anyone. I didn't really make any decisions (because I didn't know what I wanted — I didn't know myself). I am fortunate that I had a great support network that always showed me a good path. In a certain sense, I am lucky that I didn't end up in anything bad. I had great friends, a superb family, and I grew up in Denmark. Still, because I didn't know who I actually was, I just chose the most sensible, non-excluding, broad life paths (and educations) that I could find. Almost accidentally finding myself studying Math and Economics at Aalborg University.
Who am I?
Today, at 27 years young, feeling half grown-up, I am a PhD student of Operations Research, the lucky receiver of a travel-grand allowing me to study and explore the world for a year, and I am finally finding a compromise between the outgoing, boundary-seeking joker and the introverted, geeky, cinephile.
Today, I am not just interested in Philosophia, I love Sophia (that's my girlfriend's name), and I'm damn near finishing an education just to show it! I still love bad dad jokes (obviously^). And I am finally starting to put my opinion out there. I love that I actually get to contribute to an interesting field like Operations Research, and I can't wait to see what the future holds. Paradoxically, my research is within Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, so whenever you have to make a decision that involves understanding your preferences and your solution space (like buying a car or choosing an education), you can think of me.
I genuinely feel like I am on MY path (of course, some days more than others). The thing that set me free, what taught me about myself, allowing me to find myself, was travelling. In my 9th semester, I went six months abroad to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. That, together with the people I met and the mountain of scientific papers, personal growth, and philosophical stories I read, was the instigator for “breaking the 4th wall” finally allowing me to take control and knocking me onto the right path again. So if I can give just one piece of advice, it would be to seek new experiences, travel the world, and give yourself time to explore.
If you are interested in following me, I write a travel blog while studying and travelling the world called The Danish Dispatch. I also write about life lessons in movies in the publication Movies With Meaning. Lastly, I also write at the intersection of future, math, and AI, my absolute biggest passion!
Hope to see you along the way!
