December 8, 2014
I can’t even believe it’s already Dec. 8. The semester is winding down nicely. Last week was my hell week. I’ve still got odds and ends to take care of but the worst is over. I’ve still got some GA work to catch up on, but the bulk of my stress is behind me.
And in less than 2 weeks, my friends and I will be at graduation. Which is going to be really, really weird. I’ve been daydreaming about that day for so long, I can’t believe it’s just around the corner.
Before I forget, this football season was awesome. I always tell anyone I meet who is in high school and starting the college decision process to pick a school that is high in academics and good at athletics. Because the school spirit you find at a school with good sports is not like anything else you will experience. Back in 1996, the Syracuse campus went balistic when the basketball team made it to the Final Four against Kentucky. It was the early part of spring where the days start to warm up a little bit and from one day to the next the whole campus became a carnival. It came alive after a long winter.
Even though the football team didnt’ factor into my decision to come to Baylor, it really should have. Because I’m forming lifelong bonds with classmates while cheering for MBA classmate and offensive lineman Troy Baker and the rest of the Bears. This semester has been so much fun because of the football team. From the online football ticket distribution Hunger Games on Sundays to getting together for pre-game gatherings at my friend David’s house. Those are memories that are going to stay with me forever.
November 23, 2014
Here we are just about a month before the hooding ceremony to take place on the 5th floor of Cashion followed by the big ceremony held at the Farrell (?) Center. On the one hand, yes! Bring it on! I’m ready to get going with the rest of my life. On the other hand, I’m trying to slow time down. I’m going to miss the friends I’ve made and I’m going to miss the consequence-free environment of grad school.
My friend Stephen, who I often refer to as a Zen master, rarely lets anything phase him. Lots of assignments to get done? No sweat. Difficult team member for a semester-long project? Bring it on. A native of Shreveport, the former Congressional aid doesn’t let anything get to him. “This is play time,” he said to me once when I was griping to him about this or that in one or more classes. He sees difficult team dynamics as an opportunity to grow, since we’ll all surely encounter that more than we’d care to admit during our future careers.
So I’m going to miss that part of grad school. Where everything is make-believe and any error in judgement assessing a case doesn’t result in anything other than maybe a bruised ego.
This afternoon, classmates and I gathered at my friend Todd’s house. He lives on what is basically the Western Frontier in the town of Robinson just south of Waco. He is a little more obsessed with his dog than I am with mine and invited a bunch of us over to celebrate the 2-year-old birthday of his dachsund, Legend. There were a total of 7 dogs there. I was afraid it was going to turn into a canine version of Fight Club, but for the most part, they all got along well.
I’m hoping we have more get togethers like that before we all go our separate ways.
November 19, 2014
I remember last year’s tournament fondly, as students from across the three cores practiced against each other in the days leading up to the single-elimination contest. I’m out of practice, since I haven’t spent nearly as much time in the grad lounge as I have in past semesters, but still excited. I met and developed friendships with a bunch of people I didn’t know at the end of the Spring 2014 semester because of the tournament. A few of us still exchange stories from some of the matches held then, pointing back to signature moves perfected by our since-graduated classmates.
This semesters I’ve come to know a few of the Core 1’s thanks to ping pong matches and I expect to meet more in the coming weeks. I wonder if any have developed that off-the-blackboard-bounce that former classmate Spencer Holmes made his trademark during last year’s event.
October 27, 2014
Back in June of last year I started IMS. Graduation felt like it was 20 years away, even though it was only technically like 19 months away. And every week and month that passed, as we took more and more turns in front of the firehose of information pointed at us that summer, December 2014 just kept getting further and further in the distance. My brain took on a freshman’s mentality, where graduation was so far away, there was no reason to even worry about it.
Even as this Fall 2014 semester started, graduation was just around the corner but it still felt like a far off distance event. Well now it’s less than two months away, and it’s really hitting me. It’s bitter sweet for so many reasons.
I’ve made some truly amazing friendships in a really short period of time. You bond pretty quickly during high stress situations and the stress-relief activities that follow. I was an English major in college and a journalism student in my first grad school experience. So group projects were few and far between. Business school has been a completely new experience. We formed study groups almost immediately back in IMS, since we were getting so much accounting, finance, economics, and business math concepts thrown at us on a daily basis. I spent countless hours in the break out rooms that summer, by myself and with friends, wrestling with credits and debits, net present value, and with aggregate supply demand curves. It’s a special bond you make when you’re struggling to learn information at breakneck speed and sometimes the professor’s explanation makes no sense whatsoever. I’ve mentioned before how grateful I have been for the generosity of time and patience classmates extended to me that summer and in the semesters that followed.
Then the Fall 2013 semester started, and we were presented with a bunch of new people at orientation. And you better believe us IMS folks were a tightly wound clique. But then that new batch of people were all awesome and good, smart people. And we went through that semester, which was one of the most stressful I’ve ever been through. Every class felt like an oral exam. Regurgitating facts was never going to be enough. And then all the presentations we gave in our classes and in our Management Communication class. And we welcomed the “new” people into our circles of friends, camaraderie developed in the classroom, in late evening study sessions, and over laughs on the weekends.
I’ve grown so much over the last year and a half and made friendships that I know will last the rest of my life. From the summer IMS trip to the Cleveland Correction Center for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program to the Spring 2014 trip to Nike HQ in Beaverton, Oregon for Focus Firm, I’ve had some amazing experiences with some amazing people. And I’m really, really going to miss them all.
But at the same time I’m ready for the next chapter of life. I’m ready to use all these newly acquired skills and newly forged confidence. I’m looking forward to hearing about how successful my classmates are going to be. I’ve no doubt there a spattering of CEOs and chief financial officers in the bunch.
I can’t wait to cheer their successes, even if sometimes only through virtual fist pumps brokered by Facebook or text message.
September 10, 2014
As I see my time in Waco coming to a close at a not-so-far-off date, I’ve decided to create a list of things I’ll miss. So without further ado, here is the first installment:
Traffic is awesome: You don’t have to schedule more than 15 minutes to get anywhere, even if it’s across town, because traffic is never too bad. (Not counting during and after football games.)
Cameron Park: I don’t go there nearly enough, but Cameron Park is a pretty cool place. I always forget I’m in Waco when I’m walking along the Brazos.
Proximity to Dallas and Austin: It’s nice only being an hour and a half away from Dallas to the north or Austin to the south. It makes traveling to either of those places super convenient since all my friends are in Austin and I have family in Dallas.
Baylor Football: The new stadium is awesome and the games are super exciting… even if you tend to leave a bunch of them by halftime since the score is already 73-0 and you’ve got a heckload of Econ homework to do for Monday. I’m really going to miss being in the student section for football games.
July 21, 2014
I spent the weekend in Austin and it was nice to get away from Waco for a little bit. I got to see a lot of friends and eat a lot of good food, so it was a lot of fun. It has gotten me really thinking about how to focus my job search geographically, since graduation in December is just 5 months away.
I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to go where ever the best job I can find is. The kicker is, I’m realizing how important family is to me and I don’t want to be far away from them. It’s bad enough I’m away from a lot of my relatives, most of whom live in the Northeast. If I get a job outside of Texas, say in California or the Pacific Northwest, I’ll be far away from everybody. My parents are in the middle of trying to sell my childhood home in upstate New York so they can settle full time in their house in McDade, just 30 miles east of Austin.
Meanwhile, over the last seven years I’ve grown super close to my cousin and his family, who live in Southlake, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
So unless the coolest job in the coolest city presents itself somewhere else, I’m aiming to settle down in DFW or Austin. I’ve ruled out anything that’s not in a warm weather state, since I’ve spent a good chunk of my life shoveling snow, thank you very much.
I feel like I’m a senior in college all over again, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities that are just around the corner at graduation.
March 12, 2014
One of the biggest challenges I’ve had is finding a balance between school and exercise. My main problem is finding the discipline to get to sleep at a decent hour so that the next day I can exercise. I know, it sounds simple enough, but hear me out.
Most people, if they’re tired, they go to bed. That’s what most of my friends and classmates do. If it’s 11 p.m., they have an 8 a.m. class, then they usually go to bed if all their other stuff is done. Me? That’s when I get a second wind. That’s when it seems like a good time to brush up on viral cat and dog videos on YouTube or to re-watch the a Daily Show or Jimmy Fallon segment I’ve already watched like 10 times. Or maybe it’s a good time to explore what’s new on Netflix or log on to TMZ to see how my boy Justin Bieber is doing.
So 12:30 or 1 a.m. rolls around and I’m still up. Right around then is when I decide it’s a good time to start heading off the sleep. This happens every night of the week, pretty much, the only difference sometimes is that I’ll be up late doing school work.
By Thursday I’m pretty tired. And when I’m tired, and I exercise, I usually get sick. This is the curse of having the immune system of a small woodland rodent.
But I’ve decided that enough is enough and I’m pledging now, as I did on Facebook last week, to train for and do the TriWaco triathlon on July 27. I did the Sprint race two or three years ago back when triathlons and running was something I dd. Forty pounds and many, many months of inactivity later, here I am. I’ve decided to publicly announce my goal to keep me accountable. I’ve got several classmates and friends from Austin who say they will do the race with me.
This will require me to, I don’t know, go to bed at a decent hour. The last episode of this or that on Hulu Plus will have to wait until the next day. I’m pretty worried about how this will go down. Wish me luck.
February 6, 2014
So within the business school we have a little suite called the Breakout Rooms. There are 6 or 8 small conference rooms each with a white board, a conference table and an abundance of laptop-friendly outlets where you can study by yourself or meet with classmates to work on projects or gossip your faces off.
The Breakout Rooms are great. Problem is, I spent what seemed like 98 percent of my days in the Breakout Rooms during IMS from June through August. As you can imagine, I got pretty darned sick of those predominantly windowless places, nice though they be. So I started searching other places on campus to study. My friends like to ask if I’ve gone to my “undisclosed location” whenever they haven’t seen me for a while.
Well you’re in luck, because this is the world premier listing of my undisclosed locations, on campus and off. In no particular order:
The Starbucks area of the library. There are tables and a bunch of really comfortable lounge chairs in the entryway to Moody Library. Great big windows look out on a pretty nice view of campus. A Starbucks is right there for the overpriced beverage or snack of your choice. It’s not bad, if you don’t mind the occasional person who thinks it’s cool to yell across the way to their long lost roommate from freshman year. On a hot day, it can get pretty hot because of the windows. On a cold day it can get kind of cold because of the windows. But the seats are comfy, there are plenty of power outlets in the floor, and you’re only a pair of headphones away from being in your own little study oasis.
Sid Richardson Building: Paul L. Foster Success Center. I don’t know why this building has so many names. But it’s a decent place to study if you can get a table in one of the first floor study areas. There are no views into or out of anything, but it’s a nice little place to study when you have an hour or two in between classes and it’s right by the business school.
Student Union Building (The SUB). In addition to having a freaking Panda Express, which I thank God for every single day, and the ability to observe the cutting edge in undergrad fashion choices, there are a few surprise places to study. There’s a third floor area with a few tables and chairs that is usually not packed. I don’t know if people just dont’ know about it or what. There’s these living room type areas on the same floor as the big room where Dr. Pepper Social Hours are held. You can usually find somebody sleeping in there somewhere. Then there are the long strips of couch-like areas along the sides of that bigger Dr. Pepper room. You kind of feel like you’re in someone else’s grandma’s house, but the couches and chairs aren’t too bad if you can find one.
Lobby of the Business School. This lounge-like lobby area is usually infested with undergrads like ants at a recently-abandoned picnic buffet, but it will work if you don’t feel like walking to any of the above-listed areas during the evenings or on a weekend. There are plenty of chairs and tables to choose from, it’s open and airy, and there are vending machines and big windows on either side.
Off Campus Starbucks (specific location I will not reveal). There’s a certain Starbucks to remain un-named that I like to go to that’s about a 10 minute drive away from campus. It’s got a few lounge-like chairs and a few tables. No frills. And it’s kind of loud, since an off-Broadway production of Stomp seems to break out in the kitchen every single time I’m there. But it’s nice to get the heck away from campus every now and again.
Common Grounds. This is an interesting place and I’m still trying to figure out why I keep coming back. It’s not too big. They blast music kind of loud sometimes. But if there’s a spot on one of the couches, it’s a nice place to settle down for a few to several hours of study, as long as you have brought headphones. Some days undergrad conversations are painful to listen to, and some days they are the highlight of my day. The drinks are nice, if a little overpriced, and the staff is pretty friendly. And it’s cozy as all get out. So there you go.
I have a friend who recommends Barnett’s Pub and everybody seems to be going mental over Dichotomy lately, so I’ll have to try those out eventually.
February 4, 2014
So I’ve been in Waco since June and it’s time to update the list of restaurants. Looking back at the list from my post back in the summer, I hardly ever go to any of those places any more. So without further ado:
Shorty’s: This one is still on the list and it’s going stronger than ever. I. Cannot. Stop. Eating. Their. Pizza. Pillows. It’s gotten to the point where after a stressful day at school my first thought is pizza pillow. If more effective and healthier means to deal with stress exist, I haven’t found them, yet.
 Hmmmm….pizza pillow. Baris: This is an Italian restaurant and it ain’t a bad place to go with a bunch of friends on a Sunday. I usually get the lasagna and I enjoy it. My friend Mike likes to get the calzone and I swear it’s the biggest available in the free world.
George’s: It’s still good when you’re in the mood for a greasy meal, and I mean that in a good way, because I like everything I eat there. Have you had the crazy wings? It’s chicken filled with hope and beauty, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried. I wouldn’t recommend eating one when they first bring it to your table because it will burn a hole straight through your mouth, but man they are good. My only problem with George’s is if you order the fries or whatever with your burger you have to pay extra and they bring out like seven. So that part’s not super cool, but all-in-all I really like the place.
Ninfa’s: Ok, so I’m not as big of a fun of Ninfa’s as everyone else seems to be, but it’s decent. I find the waitstaff to be pretty friendly and the best part is they are extremely accommodating to large parties. This makes getting a bunch of classmates and their significant others together for a Friday night meal a heck of a lot easier than most other places. And the fried ice cream is pretty good.
Katie’s Frozen Custard: This has replaced U-Swirl as my late night (sort of) go-to frozen treat destination. I’m not ashamed to say I’m there in some capacity five times a week. It’s not pretty. But they stay open until 11 and they have really good sundaes.
July 19, 2013
Well, it would appear that the supposed on-campus black bears actually DO exist. Yesterday I saw the bears, named Judge Joy and Judge Lady, napping in a cave in their habitat.
I’m sure after my post about not seeing the bears escalated its way up to the university administration, they decided to ship in two black bears from where ever one ships in black bears from. And the ruse became a reality.
Either way, it was super cool to see. It’s like having a mini-zoo right here on campus. (Built in 2005, it is officially a class C specialty zoo and educational exhibit, if you want to get all technical about it.)
The top picture is from the official Bear Program web page. I took the fuzzy bottom image yesterday on my phone.
Older Posts »
|
