Ahhh, today was the last day of classes for the Spring quarter, which means that I am officially finished with class at Stanford. I’m not finished with my coursework yet though because I still have a final group paper for my Urban Ed class and an individual 12-15 page final paper for my Comparing Institutional Forms class to get done by this weekend. With that said, it feels GREAT to know that I don’t have to worry about going to any more classes. Also, by this time on Monday, I’ll be officially finished with school forever…one of my uncles is trying to get me to go to law school, but this is it for me and school. I’ve been meaning to write a couple of entries to make some updates on things over the past few days but got swamped with preparing for the last few days of class. Here are the updates that I’ve been meaning to give…
The big highlight since my last entry came on Sunday when I went to an birthday extravaganza for two of my classmates, Vance and Lars. These guys planned an all-day event where they invited over 50 classmates to go to a small town called Marshall, CA (2.5 hrs from Stanford), kayak across a bay to an island, and enjoy an afternoon of eating, drinking, and overall kickin’ it before kayaking back to shore. Those of you who’ve read some of my much older blog entries know that I’m not a huge fan of water, so it was TOUGH for me to say “yes” to the invitation, but I decided that celebrating these guys’ birthdays and hanging out on an island with 50+ classmates was worth conquering my phobia with water. When I was preparing to get on the water, I had “the shakes” something terrible and made sure I partnered up with someone who was a strong swimmer just in case something bad happened. Surprisingly, I had a great time out there kayaking with my man Chi-Hua and we were able to make it out to the island and back without incident. When we got to the island, we saw that Lars and Vance had put together a monster spread for all of us with freshly grilled oysters, a ton of pork BBQ ribs, greek chicken pitas, three different kinds of salads, a bunch of desserts, and all of the drinks (both regular and alcoholic) that anyone could have asked for. Even better, the fellas had invited a really diverse group of classmates out there, so we had several social circles represented and I had a chance to hang out with folks that I don’t usually see around anymore. I was dead tired as I was driving the 2.5 hours back to Palo Alto and my muscles were aching from all the rowing for a couple of days, but the fun was well worth it.
On Monday and earlier today, I had my final two class presentations in Real Estate Investment and Strategic Philanthropy, respectively. Usually, I get a little nervous before getting up in front of people and presenting, but, with these two, the light at the end of the tunnel was growing progressively brighter and they both went by with no anxiety at all. The Real Estate presentation went very well and the Philanthropy one went less smoothly, but it just feels good to have both of them behind me. Now, I’ve just got to knock out those two papers that I mentioned above and I’ll be free and clear. It’s strange to know that, in a few days, I won’t have to worry about any sort of deliverables again for 2-3 months. Dang, I sure have turned in a lot of assignments in the past two years…whew!
Last night, my Touchy Feely T-group had our third reunion dinner since ending our class time together and it was the first time that we’d actually been able to get the 12 of us back together as a complete unit. It was a bittersweet reunion though because we all realized that this might be the last time that we’re ever able to get all of us in a single place together. My T-group members are going to be spread all over the world (ATL, Charlotte, NYC, SF, Chicago, London) and there’s no guarantee that we’ll all come back for the GSB reunions every five years. After spending an entire quarter opening yourself up to a single group of people, it’s tough to think that the group might not be able to kick it as a unit anymore. Further, the 12 of us aren’t even going to be able to celebrate together at graduation because one member is leaving this saturday to go back to the Ukraine to stay with her family for a couple of weeks before she starts working. Wow, this GSB experience is really coming to a close now…this two years has gone by SO quickly.
Now that it’s all coming to a close, the next thing coming up is a week of partying and events intended to let us all go out with a bang. This period called “Disorientation” takes place every year and is seen as the last time that the graduating MBA’s will be able to kick it together as a large group. I wish I could give you more details about the activities we’ll be doing, but the tradition is for Disorientation to stay very hush-hush, so I’ll just have to stick with providing you guys with general information. It’ll be tough for me not to give you the detailed information, but I’m not one to go against tradition
The big highlight since my last entry came on Sunday when I went to an birthday extravaganza for two of my classmates, Vance and Lars. These guys planned an all-day event where they invited over 50 classmates to go to a small town called Marshall, CA (2.5 hrs from Stanford), kayak across a bay to an island, and enjoy an afternoon of eating, drinking, and overall kickin’ it before kayaking back to shore. Those of you who’ve read some of my much older blog entries know that I’m not a huge fan of water, so it was TOUGH for me to say “yes” to the invitation, but I decided that celebrating these guys’ birthdays and hanging out on an island with 50+ classmates was worth conquering my phobia with water. When I was preparing to get on the water, I had “the shakes” something terrible and made sure I partnered up with someone who was a strong swimmer just in case something bad happened. Surprisingly, I had a great time out there kayaking with my man Chi-Hua and we were able to make it out to the island and back without incident. When we got to the island, we saw that Lars and Vance had put together a monster spread for all of us with freshly grilled oysters, a ton of pork BBQ ribs, greek chicken pitas, three different kinds of salads, a bunch of desserts, and all of the drinks (both regular and alcoholic) that anyone could have asked for. Even better, the fellas had invited a really diverse group of classmates out there, so we had several social circles represented and I had a chance to hang out with folks that I don’t usually see around anymore. I was dead tired as I was driving the 2.5 hours back to Palo Alto and my muscles were aching from all the rowing for a couple of days, but the fun was well worth it.
On Monday and earlier today, I had my final two class presentations in Real Estate Investment and Strategic Philanthropy, respectively. Usually, I get a little nervous before getting up in front of people and presenting, but, with these two, the light at the end of the tunnel was growing progressively brighter and they both went by with no anxiety at all. The Real Estate presentation went very well and the Philanthropy one went less smoothly, but it just feels good to have both of them behind me. Now, I’ve just got to knock out those two papers that I mentioned above and I’ll be free and clear. It’s strange to know that, in a few days, I won’t have to worry about any sort of deliverables again for 2-3 months. Dang, I sure have turned in a lot of assignments in the past two years…whew!
Last night, my Touchy Feely T-group had our third reunion dinner since ending our class time together and it was the first time that we’d actually been able to get the 12 of us back together as a complete unit. It was a bittersweet reunion though because we all realized that this might be the last time that we’re ever able to get all of us in a single place together. My T-group members are going to be spread all over the world (ATL, Charlotte, NYC, SF, Chicago, London) and there’s no guarantee that we’ll all come back for the GSB reunions every five years. After spending an entire quarter opening yourself up to a single group of people, it’s tough to think that the group might not be able to kick it as a unit anymore. Further, the 12 of us aren’t even going to be able to celebrate together at graduation because one member is leaving this saturday to go back to the Ukraine to stay with her family for a couple of weeks before she starts working. Wow, this GSB experience is really coming to a close now…this two years has gone by SO quickly.
Now that it’s all coming to a close, the next thing coming up is a week of partying and events intended to let us all go out with a bang. This period called “Disorientation” takes place every year and is seen as the last time that the graduating MBA’s will be able to kick it together as a large group. I wish I could give you more details about the activities we’ll be doing, but the tradition is for Disorientation to stay very hush-hush, so I’ll just have to stick with providing you guys with general information. It’ll be tough for me not to give you the detailed information, but I’m not one to go against tradition
