Why are you here? I asked myself this question a couple of times during these past few months of my MBA. It’s clear that a sudden sense of loss of the comfort and safety I use to have is blurring my view and makes me forget why I took the decision in the first place.
Every day assures me more and more I’m in the right place, at the right time. Every day is a learning experience, far beyond what is taught inside the classroom. True learning is continuously pouring from the diversity of such a great group of kind, intelligent, and succeeding people, coming from more than 20 different countries. This diversity gives me some meaningful learning almost every day.
Therefore, I don’t even have to look for the answers to the question I started this writing with. The answers keep approaching me all the time. I just need to grasp them all and thus take the most out of the experience.
As I particularly perceive now, it’s probably not so meaningful to state a point of view as either right or wrong, as what really distinguishes one’s opinion is how it can be arguable or not. It’s probably not so meaningful to weave (in a glimpse) any judgment about whomever, as what often makes the difference is just how willing we are to better know the person.
These impressions may look rather trivial but are now gaining a different perspective to me.
I recall one graph shown in one of our first class sessions. It described the motivation cycle of a regular full-time MBA student throughout the year. It started with a high enthusiasm that plummeted somewhere during the 3rd or 4th month and then gradually rebounded towards high levels during the whole last quarter. When I first saw the plot I immediately thought – hey, this is not me! I’m totally out of this behavior! I’ve never felt such high enthusiasm! But I know I’m living a steadily upwards motivation curve though, and it will take me towards the same level of motivation and fulfillment, typical of such a rich experience as this one.
Hence, regardless of how you live the MBA experience, as long as your main goals – it doesn’t necessarily mean the only ones – are to get out of your comfort zone, be challenged, and grow as a person, the result will be highly rewarding and fulfilling.
And more than two months are already gone. It’s amazing how fast the time is passing by (and It will be even faster from now on, as the snow is hopefully about to melt, thus welcoming a real springtime ;-).
Best wishes for a nice spring break to everybody.
Cheers
Hugo