Whew! I had no idea that I would enjoying hanging out and doing nothing so much, but this Winter break was SO necessary. I got back to VA last monday and I was so excited that I was literally grinning from ear to ear as I approached the runway at Washington's National Airport. From the moment my friend Kendra picked me up that night, I knew I was back in my own element. I had a great time at Stanford over the course of the last 3-4 months, but it is a good feeling to be back around my family and friends and not feel like I've got to put on my "business face".
I had been seriously homesick since the beginning of September, so it was great to be able to actually have a conversation with my mom and be looking at her. Or to goof off with both of my sisters in person and at the same time. It's easy to take the little things like spending time with your peoples for granted, but being 3000 miles away from them when you're used to seeing them whenever you want is really difficult. I thought I was ready for everything when i left for Cali, but the homesickness and missing folks wasn't one of the things I'd considered. The time zone differences didn't help matters because it would be midnight here on the east coast by the time my nighttime minutes started out West. Since getting back here, I've been constantly shuttling back and forth from my mom's house out in the stixx up to the DC area so I can catch up with my friends around there that I've been missing too. I've put about 1000 miles on my rental car in the past week, so I hope I remember to get unlimited mileage on that joint or else I'm going to be short when I have to return it. I am happy to be back and it's hard to believe that I've only got 9 days left until I have to fly back to school.
One thing that I've been slacking on is preparing for case interviews. I haven't looked at any of the stuff I printed out to work on out here, so that's my next task. I've got about a month until internship interviews start, so I'm praying that i can get on point by then. I'll be writing more about that as the process starts in the middle of January.
At long last, I've finally made it to the end of the first quarter here at Stanford. It was a rough ride, but I was ecstatic to finish my last exam in Statistics on Thursday. All three of the finals that I took this week were monsters and I don't know how I got through them, but they are now behind me. I've gotten two of my grades back and I surprised myself by doing OK on those classes, one of which included Econ. Since finishing exams, I've been taking care of smaller errands like running people to the airport, cleaning my room, and hanging out with some of the few classmates who are still around. Now, it has gotten to the time for me to go back to VA...thank goodness. I have loved this first quarter, but I've been homesick since September and I'm ready to see my mother and the rest of my family and friends back on the east coast. My flight is tomorrow morning and I'll be there for a little less than three weeks, so I'll have some decent time to be back in "my regular world" before having to come back and re-enter the MBA world. Whew, I never knew that so much could go on in just a few months.
But at least, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I've hit my Finals period and had the first exam (in Econ) this morning from 8am to noon. I crammed like crazy last night, but my effort was futile because that test was a monster. The professor came in our test room at the beginning and told us that they thought the test was harder than the past couple of years' finals and he wasn't lying. Whew! I walked out of there feeling like I have a solid LP (low pass) coming when I see my grades in a couple of weeks. Oh well, there's no rest for the weary...I've got to get started cramming for my accounting exam now because that's coming up in about 15 hours. I can't wait until Winter Break.