I was informed that time moves faster as you get older. I didn’t want to accept that, but time has moved terrifyingly fast since school started in August.
I was also informed to trust the curve.
I would like to report that trusting the curve is as terrifying as time flying, but incredibly relieving once you know the curve to be reliable.
This is important.
Booth is all about choosing your own journey. Like I’ve said before, this looks different to each student in respect to their classes, internships, free time and relationships.
For me, I was just trying to make it through my classes this first quarter. As a student with no prior collegiate businesses courses – microeconomics and statistics were not the sweetest pieces of cake.
I made it through this quarter with a little help from my friends.
Surprisingly to me – but not surprising to anyone else.
Everything Is Fine
2Ys kept saying you guys will be fine. But, that’s difficult for most 1Ys to hear. Most of my classmates are brainiacs, perfectionists – the typical straight A students. Failing in the classroom is not acceptable, nor normal.
I’m a little different , because I’m used to failing. In fact, I failed a lot at Vanderbilt. My big dreams of being an orthodontist and dental school left me with quite a few F’s, D’s and C’s on my transcript. I know what it feels like to not perform, regardless of hours spent in preparation. For the first time many of my fellow 1Ys had the “jesus take the wheel” experience where you just may have to be okay with not getting that homework done, or receiving the A that you’re used to.
And you know what – that’s okay. Because in life you’re never going to get everything done, and everything that you put time into wont be successful or reach the level of success that you expected or intended it to.
But you still have to try.
Everything is fine, because you learn so much more about yourself and your classmates in the process of struggling and learning together.
Autumn Quarter Notables
I knew that I would enjoy marketing strategy and entrepreneurial discovery, I also knew I would most likely drown in microeconomics and statistics.
Luckily, I surrounded myself with fantastic classmates and friends that could lift me up when I was drowning, which allowed me to step up and shine in the courses that I knew I was more versed in.
My favorite interaction of the quarter was when I thought I did pretty well on a statistics midterm with a 72/110 grade. The interaction looked something like this: I confidently walked into class and asked my professor what the midterm average was. He was like, “eh, I don’t think you want to know”. I proceeded to say, “yes I do, I think I did pretty well…”. He looked at me kind of funny and said, “I really don’t think you do, but the average was a 96″. I then kind of choked on my spit and said, ‘Are you f**king kidding me, no way.” He laughed and said, “Yup, told you you didn’t want to know”. And then all I could do was laugh, incessantly for the next 10 minutes.
Another highlight of my quarter was when I almost incited a riot in a microeconomics finals review session. I studied for my one sit down final for 2 weeks prior to the exam in an attempt to learn 9 weeks of material. I went to the review session led by a PhD student Teaching Assistant – I think I rocked his world just a little bit. I would share the video, but I will spare you. Let’s just say, when he said that he didn’t believe in giving partial credit (as he would be the person grading our finals), the review session didn’t really go in his favor after.
Special shoutouts to Joe Gammie, Alex Ragula and Nick Giovacchini for being patient and taking the time to teach and help me understand concepts that I truly didn’t think I would ever be able to understand mathematically. Whether it was walking me through homework questions, or studying for midterms or answering every question I had leading up to the final, you helped me feel at least a little confident by the end of the quarter.
Lastly, shoutout to my Marketing Strategy team (Shane Gizzi, Lauren Buethe, Mihir Narain and Brendan Schmitz) for being incredibly efficient and making our marketing cases one of the best weekly assignments every week.
High Level Learnings:
- Stick together – you may be on different journeys, but you’re not on your journey alone
- Lean on friends with strengths different than yours
- Accept that you will not have the time to execute and/or understand every concept and assignment
- Take the time to learn and understand concepts and frameworks that will benefit you long-term.
- Last but not least – Trust The Curve.
If I made it through, anyone can make it through. Looking forward to the Winter quarter and trying to figure out financial accounting. I’m sure it will be a blast.
MBA: The Blog 