Several days before, some of my friends told me we should begin to pre-purchase the airline tickets from the U.S. to China. After talking with my parents, I decided to stay in campus during Christmas after comparing the marginal profit and marginal cost of fling back to China.
The marginal analysis here is pretty simple. My marginal cost of flying back, with no doubts, is mainly the transportation fees, which is approximately 1700 dollars. My marginal profit, quite obviously, is the pleasure gained from the family bonding I shall have in China. The question here is how much I value the pleasure of family bonding. While in fact, I found it hard to measure my value on the pleasure. When my mother asked me whether I wanted to go back, I realized that I can hardly answer that question with affirmation.
How did I decide? Rational people not only think at margin, but also think about the opportunity cost. It was really hard to measure how much I should gain had I decided to go back. But it was simple to think about how much I should gain by staying in the U.S. If I stay here, the marginal cost is simply the accommodation fees and dining fees. The marginal profit is the free time up to one month during which I may be able to study a lot of knowledge myself, which I value not so less than the pleasure of spending time with my family. As a result, the opportunity cost of going back to China is far more than that of staying here, so I decided to stay in campus this year.
What’s really interesting here is how much I value the family bonding time. Since it’s just my first year of studying abroad, I don’t feel much nostalgia. But if I’ve been studied here, like some of my friends, for 3 years, I believe I may have absolutely different choice.
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