Tuesday, September 9, 2008

CHAOS!!!

I need a new calendar. I need 24 more hours in my day. I need sleep. I need to figure out my priorities and career choices. I need to complete my assignments. I need to figure out where I am and what in the world I am doing!!!

A bewildering number of opportunities present themselves almost as soon as we set foot into the first term. Clubs and club activites are not even the tip of the iceberg... there are section elections, club leadership positions, course options, CMC presentations and activities... The list keeps going till the colors in your calendar make your head ache. I have not had so many back to back events on the busiest day in my pretty demanding career. I know I am holding on for dear life to the rollercoaster... and yet the question dogs me -- have I done everything I can to maximize my experience without biting off more than I can chew?

I think the reality is that Bschool is all about navigating these choices and their consequences -- and learning from that. And though occasionally I feel like everything is just going too fast and I am running as fast as I can to stay in the same place...and that I need to put in a calendar entry that goes "Take a deep breath", somewhere in all the noise and the chaos, I am learning a lot of things. How to make good mistakes -- may be an important aspect of that !

What I dread though, is the "networking". With all due respect, it's an important , almost vital aspect of the business world, and I dont deny that. But at the 15th " Hi, I'm ....., Nice to meet you", I am totally tuned out and I am sure the guy listening to the 4oo'th "Nice to meet you" has tuned out as well. Somehow , though I like people and talking to them, these networking events drain me totally. Bschool is all about meeting people -- but for strategy -- howz this? What can be done to make the events more than just empty "How do u do?"s and every person we meet is a "what's in it for me?" evaluation ?

On the positive side -- I met a person today, a second year who is taking a year off to do volunteer work in Venezuela... a whole year! He would be joining back with us the next year. I think that sort of confidence is unbelievable -- to try something totally out of the way, socially impacting and yet ... I guess I am not that confident.

With the Statistics assignment glaring at me now, I had better either get it done or hit the sack. Sleep is a rare and precious commodity in the first couple of terms I hear. I can well believe it now.

For those who mailed me about Duke --all the best with your applications. I will check with Admissions Ambassadors and see if informal interactions can be incorporated into the site. Thanks again for your comments!

5 comments:

Ankur said...

Thanks for keeping us posted. Do let us know what the Admission Ambassador say.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

Congrats on getting things started at Fuqua -- I stumbled across your blog as someone who is extremely interested in attending Fuqua...

All the best,
Matt

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