Italy was awesome! I ate. I drank. I slept. It was heavenly. I also got a great perspective on adjusting to a new place where you aren’t very adept with the language. One of my brother’s friends commented to my brother about how shy I am. He just bust out laughing. It made me think about some students some of my classmates, who seem to be very quiet, but maybe it is just that they are getting comfortable with English. It was eye opening and relaxing. I got a lot of reading done on the plane, too, but I don’t want to make another 8 hour plane ride in coach. These are the situations that make me appreciate that I don’t have any kids.
I feel so out of the loop and have lost all momentum in only a week of jumping off of the wheel. Most people looked a little off this week. My mom came up for a few days and that’s when I realized that business school has eroded my already small consideration of others. My house is usually a wreck and I’m OK with that. Looking at my mess through someone else’s eyes made me grateful that I don’t have time to date.
...maybe not, but I'll take one anyway.
Contrary to popular opinion, you can learn a term’s worth of material in a day. I actually learned a few concepts during the final. It wasn’t a great help, but I didn’t bomb it either. I also managed a minor aneurism when my group realized we’d spent three weeks constructing a paper that didn’t address what the professor asked for. It was tense, but we worked it out. Anyway, it is done and with that, an extremely long term has come to a close. There were times, I wasn’t sure we would make it. I feel like I’ve been running nonstop since January…
As I was finished with finals early in the week, I volunteered to give tours and answer questions for prospective minority students attending the Management Leaders for Tomorrow (MLT) Program. It was a flashback to my “pre-MBA” thought processes, when where to live (It doesn’t really matter, since you won’t be there much.) and getting good grades (We get graded for this?) seemed very important. I was surprised to be able to answer questions about the GSB when I feel like I’m still learning to navigate it myself, but I guess it is so intense precisely because you haven’t got time to “get a feel” for it. You learn by doing, or not doing, as the case may be.
So for a status report: I am exhausted and a little loopy. My house looks like a hurricane interrupted World War 3. I have a boatload of pre-assignments (articles) to read before next term begins. But as I approach the final episode in my first year of business school, I am leaving for Italy in the morning. It’s Spring break, people! Talk to you next week…
Okay, so this week has been torture. As I attended each of my final classes and felt increasing relief only to have my hopes dashed by overzealous group members who want to “improve” a paper based on one errant comment from the professor. My argument that these are PhDs and don’t really require us spelling out concepts they’ve taught us verbatim in our final projects, doesn’t really seem to be going over well.
In spite of my impending finals, I blew off yesterday and went to the Expo for Today’s Black Woman at McCormick Place. It is interesting, as usual, when you have those moments that you’re undecided about whether you should be flattered or offended. The concentration of faux Louis Vuitton in the house was close to the legal threshold and the Alize booth got plenty of visitors. But some of the seminars were really informative and I enjoyed a whole day free of business-school topics and people who take themselves too seriously.
I now have about 36 hours to learn ten weeks of Investments concepts for the final. Seven months ago, I would have been in a panic. Now it is just par for the course.
I spent five hours on Sunday in one study group. The upside is that we actually finished the paper, so I’m down to three classes to worry about. We have another class project that is way behind and I’m not sure how the end product is going to be our best material, but sometimes you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.
I did my problems for my last Investments class yesterday. I can’t believe the term has flown by this fast. It may be because of recruiting, when many people stopped going to classes, or the fact that I missed the first week, but this term has just disappeared. I have to admit that I am in desperate need of a break.
Considering that I am expecting to be very busy next term and that I don’t have much of a break this summer, I wanted to do something special for Spring Break. Some of my classmates are going to Brazil and China. I will be visiting my big brother in Rome. I’ve never been out of the country (I don’t consider Canada, out of the country.) so I have a little trepidation, but I am very excited. I can’t wait to get some gelato!
It has been a crazy week, but we’re gearing up for Admit Weekend. It is a bit earlier this year as they have tried to bring in the students from the first round, since they don’t have until the middle of April to decide.
I spent yesterday at the office of my new employer downtown. This time to meet with the partner who will be evaluating (i.e. responsible) me for the summer. We talked about expectations for the summer and what kinds of things I’d like to work on this summer. I requested an out-of-town study so that I can assess whether I will be able to deal with the intense travel which I’ve never done before. It’s funny though as I have been in the office every Friday for the past six weeks and I’m scheduled to be back next week.
We had the Student Activities Fair last night during LPF, and it was kind of cool to catch up with people I hadn’t seen since before recruiting. I am still getting used to my newfound popularity or at least awareness. People know me, and all of a sudden I am stopped on a regular basis to talk with someone about one of the 40 initiatives I’m working on today. It started after I got my offer and was stamped mainstream, and then intensified after LEAD training began. There are forty of us that are connected and this fostered camaraderie even among relative strangers. Knowing these people ripples out to their friends and then, all of a sudden, you know everybody. I guess there are worse things than having to avoid the Winter Garden or risk forfeiting an hour of your time.
I attended the Women’s roundtable breakfast this morning and then participated in the LEAD information session. It was sort of eerie considering that it doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was sitting there wondering why the LEAD people were so impossibly enthusiastic, and whether I would like the students here. It amazes me how fast you are transformed from a neo to an old pro. You almost don’t realize that it is happening.
Tomorrow I have two study groups scheduled to finish up final projects and papers. The downside to having three classes is that I also have three groups, some more functional than others. We’re getting down to the wire in this term and people are getting a little bit weird.