The End (of Year 1) is Nigh

So we are about to enter the final exam week for the first year. It has been a long journey.

It was tempting to make this a rant about the subject of the final exam that I have to do on Monday, but I’ll hold off. As my lecturer (who is, in all fairness, a very nice guy) told me, “You only have to believe in this stuff until the end of the exam”. Plus, it appears that all of my classmates are in the same frame of mind.

So let’s stay positive. It’s hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of the first year. It feels like only a few weeks ago that we were in orientation week, completely naïve to the barrage of learning that we were about to absorb. We had so many plans back then, thinking that we would have time to travel, to make art, to socialise on a grand scale.

Needless to say it didn’t turn out that way. They work you hard in the MA/MBA program. The assignments are relentless, the hours long, and the coffee stronger. The courses pushed you to see how much effort you could put in, to find your limits and then push them a little further. Just when you think you are getting used to it, they ratchet up the dial a little more. 

Tough love.

And because of this, it has been an exceptional year. So many highlights, so many experiences, so much new knowledge, so many new friends. And the next year promises to be even bigger.

The MBA program sends me to South America the week after finals, and then I have just enough time to pack my apartment up before moving to Washington D.C. for the summer internship. Then it’s straight to Milan, Italy for the autumn semester, with a stop via Australia on the way back to celebrate Christmas with the family.

There’s a lot of travel planned, which is great. The only thing is that there’s so much of Dallas that I haven’t yet checked out (Pecan Lodge, Cane Rosso, Ascension, and that’s just the food…). It’ll just have to wait until I return for the final semester of the MA/MBA program.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to studying.

Bonus Blog: One of my friends, Jennifer Kesterson, has also been blogging her experiences of MBA life. It’s worth a read.