This week has been a blur and it’s only Wednesday night, damn. I have So much work to do it’s unreal. On top of everything else, my housing situation fell through yesterday ( I found out when I called to go pick up the keys). A brother was PISSED. Anyway that situation has left me scrambling to find a place since I have to be out of here in 3 days. I missed my classes today due to all of the running around, It feels f’cked up to be falling behind in my classes already because of someone else’s shady business practices. Maybe in my next entry I’ll post the name of the company so no one has to go through what I went through. I’ll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.
I’m wiped out, I think I’m going to take a nap and then read my case study for ethics as well as read my accounting and statistics homework. I also have a statistics project due Friday that I was hoping to be through with today. Damn. Ah well…. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it right?
Ok people, that’s enough griping out of me for now. Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.
Okay, can’t believe that it’s finally here…classes start Monay. It’s unreal, I mean I started this whole process over a year ago (boy was my life hell then) Going to Kaplan right after work, then leaving Kaplan and going home to study. No gym, no social life, no going out, wow it feels almost like a whole lifetime ago though.
Yesterday was fun, we had our Cluster Olympics. Each incoming class is broken up into groups of about 60 students. These groups are called clusters, I’ll be taking all of my first year classes with my cluster. It’s a great way to bond and develop some really good relationships. Anyway, yesterday we battled the other clusters in our version of the Olympics; it was great! Just to give you a quick picture of it all, we were in Central Park somewhere all dressed up in whatever we decided we would wear as a cluster. Some clusters came dressed as commando’s some came dressed as, well I don’t know what the hell they were but it was all funny. We’re in Central park having waterballoon, watergun and beer fights. It was a madhouse. It was so bad that I called a friend who lives close by to come meet me there. He came to the park and left, when I asked him why he left he said because he didn’t see us, all he saw was some elementary school day camp kids playing around. I’m sure you can imagine how shocked he was when I told him that those day camp kids were actually us.
Just for the record my Cluster tied for first place. Of course. J
Okay I’m going to bed, I think I’ll try to catch church tomorrow. Sounds good, sounds good.
Ok, This MUST be preparation for the semester. I’m in preterm, but there’s nothing ‘pre’ about it. The time committent is already unreal. It’s a LOCK DOWN day from 8am until at least 6pm, that is if you don’t duck out on any of the mandatory seminars. And honestly I don’t think I would try it since they took attendance in at least one of them today. It’s definitely been interesting these seminars are set up almost like classes but they are surrounding issues that will affect us as students. For example we had one today on Ethics, Columbia has an Ethics Code that it feels very strongly about, so after a lecture on it we were broken up into groups and given mini case studies on different ethical dilemmas which had actually occurred in the past at Columbia, It was an interesting way to bring home the point, but I don’t know if we needed to spend 2 hours on it. A lot of it seemed like common sense to me. I guess you can’t be too careful though, especially since we were told stories of former students trying to lie on resumes and even about recommendations. I honestly feel that unethical people will be unethical and it doesn’t matter what you tell them, but at least Columbia has informed us of the standards we’ll be held to, so no complaining if you get caught violating. It’s serious too, 3 people have been expelled in recent months for violations, so I’m making sure I’m EXTRA careful. J
I’ve met some REALLY cool people from all around the world, and I’ve gotten talked into playing on the Rugby team. Maybe I’ll be able to re-live my glory days as a football player (I played in high school, yeah I was captain J and in college until I ruptured my Achilles tendon, which by the way was the most pain I’ve ever experienced this side of circumcision) I feel kind of like Al Bundy talking about good old ‘Polk High’ and scoring 4 touchdowns in one game J Last chance to do it! Like I was saying we were on campus from 8 until 6 and then there was a boat ride leaving from the South Street Seaport. It was really cool, especially since it took us right (phone call 12:08—back 12:35) by the Statue of Liberty. I had never been that close, Lady Liberty looks pretty good. After we got back to shore we hit up a bar for a drink and some more laughs, I really think this is a great group of people.
Okay, it’s late so I’m off to bed to prepare to get abused again tomorrow.
Okay,
Today was interesting. I went to a brunch hosted by Columbia’s Black Business Student Association (BBSA). It was sponsored by Goldman Sachs (Thanks Goldman!) Yeah man, it was perfect timing too, because a brother was STARVING. I had kind of a late night last night (thanks to a couple of current CBS second years). It was the kind of late night that makes you wake up with a headache and a slight woozy feeling, so I knew I needed to get some food in my stomach.
The brunch itself was nice. The best part was that I got to see people who I had met before at different events throughout the application process. This whole process started over a year ago. so it feels like we go way back. That’s been one of the great things about this, I’ve met some people who are not only cool, but they’re also making major power moves. There’s no better motivation for me to stay on top of my game.
I also had the opportunity to connect with current students and alumni. It’s been all love, but I am getting a little nervous at the fact that whenever 2nd year students look at all the newcomers they start to laugh fiendishly as they talk about what our year is going to be like. It’s cool though, they can’t rattle me.
‘If I can’t do it homie it caannnn’t be done!’ J
Sorry got a little sidetracked. But that does bring to my interests. I’m actually back at school because I have an interest in media and entertainment. Yeah, I want to be Russell Simmons. Okay, not exactly be him, but I do have aspirations of running my own multimedia corporation similar to how Russell is doing. I have to say, I saw him speak at a conference in Boston earlier this year, and he tore it up man. I left there thinking, ‘Damn! I need to get on the ball.’ And here I am now trying to make it happen.
Thank you for the added motivation Russell!
Alright it’s pretty late and I have to be on campus tomorrow by 9:30am to get my computer configured, so I’m calling it quits.
Until next time people.
Okay,
To start off, just so you know who I am. My name is Shadan, I’m a first year student at Columbia Business School. Essentially what I’ll be doing is documenting some of the highs and lows of my business school experience. Hopefully my experiences will benefit or at least entertain anyone who’s thinking about applying to school or maybe someone who’s currently in school, just to let you know that you’re not the only one ‘going through it’. I have a feeling that I’m in for some interesting times and the great part about it all is that you just get to read along without having to go through it. It’s kind of like ‘The Real World’ except that you get to read and not watch. Then again, maybe not. Because if you watch ‘The Real World’ then you know that it’s nothing like the real real world. Ah well. My promise to you is that I’ll keep it real. So read along and enjoy.