Halfway Through First Year

One of the great things about not being able to think too far into the future is that life becomes so much more eventful when seen through you own eyes. Things move at a pretty hectic pace in a B School. You hardly get time to take a step back and ponder. To look at the rear view mirror and see how far you've come. But when you do get that window of time and your mind starts to connect past incidents to light up the road which has brought you here; more often than not, you sit back and marvel at how things have changed. How you have transformed.

Quarter 3 has been easy so far. Fridays off and lighter Wednesdays and Thursdays. Perhaps because it's the interview season. It's also the time when second years start thinking about their reentry into the 'real world'. You would frequently hear about ToDo lists to be checked before school ends and trips to be made. Some take it easy and relax. Others take as many courses as they can since it might be the last time they go to school. First years realize how time flies. And prospective students begin to reach the end of their application process. In the last few weeks I've interacted with a few applicants who have successfully made this journey. And my mind went back to the time when I had got the call. It had made a lot of things fall into place. Past failures, which had closed a few doors and opened a few more; decisions which were made at times impulsively and on the rare occasion with thorough analysis; and events over which I had little control. Almost like the trees we make in our Decision Analysis class. Options and Events. You take some, you lose out on some.

So like I mentioned earlier, it's internship hunting time in a first years' life. Stress levels typically increase during this period. But then again, different people react so differently to the same circumstances. I'm in the 'still looking' club right now. I think it's early days and we form the majority! The point is, a year back, I couldn't have imagined myself in this situation and my reaction to it. Getting into B School was the only thing I had in my mind space. I had left the next chapter for later. And now I find myself in the middle of first year. Thinking about internships and beyond. Trying to balance a myriad things and not lose perspective at the same time.

I'm a staunch believer of the theory that any experience is what you make of it and no matter how much you've heard about it before, unless you are in the midst of it, you really do not have a clue of what it's like. Darden has conformed to that. Memories, experiences, dilemmas and hopes. That's what this blog is supposed to be about. And right now, I'm absolutely loving the abundance of all of it.