Before business school, every alum I talked to said the same thing: Make sure you have a plan when you get to school because it’s going to go quickly and there will be many opportunities that you’ll need to prioritize. I would like to add one caveat to this phrase…plans change. Mine certainly did. I’m now “sprinting through the finish line” instead of “sprinting to the finish line” because I’m not in a rush to finish my business school experience but, instead, trying to cram everything in, which is turning my life into a sprint. COVID-19 is part of the reason my plans have changed, however, even without COVID-19, I would have needed to pass on many opportunities to make room for better ones. So, I’m going to use this piece as an opportunity to slow down and think about what I’ve done (and haven’t done) over the last two years – thank you for indulging me.
In the blur that’s been my final few weeks at Booth, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about some of the things that I did not end up doing while in school. I didn’t take a lighter course load in order to intern at a VC firm, I didn’t take more marketing classes, and I didn’t travel as much as I wanted to (thanks, COVID). On paper, this looks like a miss – in fact, I’m pretty sure I talked about all three of these things in my application. That said, while I am a bit bummed for not having done these things, I need to think about the opportunity cost I would have incurred if I had taken each of these opportunities (spoken like a good student of The University of Chicago).
Thinking about the opportunities I missed, I realize why I skipped them. I may not have had time to intern at a VC firm, but I did have time to pivot careers; not only in industry, but also in function. I may not have had time to take all the marketing courses I wanted to take, but I did have time to realize how much I enjoy economics (fun fact – this Boothie had never taken an econ or finance class before Booth). And while the pandemic definitely stopped me from traveling, I’m walking away with fewer, but possibly deeper friendships. (Although, I won’t lie, losing the opportunity to travel as much during school definitely still stings). Each of these decisions helped me go deeper on my major goals for business school which were to: learn the fundamentals of business, pivot into the healthcare field, and build an incredible network. If I had stuck to my guns, I may have spread myself too thin and, instead of mastering what was most important to me, I would have scratched the surface everywhere. So, the alumni I talked to were proven right – a plan is really important, but keeping the plan high level and lofty enough to give myself room to customize my path is important too.
Though I’ll soon be joining the ranks of those alumni, for now I wake up every morning of these last few weeks and try to fit in as many opportunities as possible to squeeze out every last drop of experience I can. I imagine as I further reflect on the experience, I’ll continue to stop and reframe my time as the paths chosen versus the paths not taken. While I may not ever feel fully satisfied, I realize that’s an unattainable status anyway. Instead, I feel confident in the decisions I made and had the best b-school experience I could have given the things in my control.
