I remember one of the weirdest sensations of business school being that I was now a part of a 500+ group of grownups who were set and ready to make friends with one another like it was the first day of 5th grade. It was something I hadn’t been used to doing in many years having attended a large secondary school that fed from my elementary school, a college that pulled heavily from my high school, and an initial job that was located in the same geographical area I grew up. While I added handfuls of friends at each juncture, I had never done so in such a holistic and comprehensive manner.
Another related quirk about business school is the length of the timeframe. At just two years long, it’s one of the shorter graduate programs available and an undoubted reason the experience shapes up as it does. You spend a fleeting year with the outgoing class and another one with the incoming one, but the bulk of relationship building, memory making, and trip taking happens with classmates in your same graduating year.
As I think about how my time at Booth has shaped up, there is definitely an opportunity to compare and contrast each school year. Both have virtues that make them unique, and both have had challenges that required hard work, sacrifice, and a whole lot of hope. I hate to sound like I’m already drafting my sign-off as a student, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel (or is it darkness, for having to leave this place?) for me to consider a moment of reflection. What made each year great? And what made it different from the other?