Traveling
After finishing the first round of final exams this week (as mentioned in the last post), I’ve gotten the opportunity to sit down and reflect on the MBA experience to date. More specifically, I’ve gotten to take the time to think about the new places I’ve been in the past years’ time, and how different that experience has been in comparison to my athletic career.
Growing up, I didn’t travel too often. In fact, for a few years, I thought that traveling was only a violation in basketball. Eventually, that belief wore off, but the sports did not. In fact, this attraction to sports ran all the way through college. I spent a significant amount of time playing Division III baseball during my time as an undergrad at the University of Texas at Dallas. During that time, I was a part of the team that traveled to small towns in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Yet, these athletic trips feel far different than the business trips that I’ve taken since then.
With that said, the trips in this program have had a deeper sense of purpose somehow. First, I got the opportunity to attend a set of seminars in New York City as a part of the first semester’s curriculum. The lights and the atmosphere of Manhattan are far different than I would have known if I hadn’t been there. The second trip, to Walmart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, was a part of the Focus Firm course that acts as a “Capstone project” to the program during the second MBA semester. It’s not an everyday occurrence to get the opportunity to view the inner workings of the #1 firm in the Fortune 500 rankings, and it’s certainly one I did not take for granted. Next week, I will travel to Indianapolis for a career fair, and I’ll get to see the stadium where last year’s Super Bowl was held, Lucas Oil Stadium. Hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of people will be there, looking to find the right employment fit, including myself.
Yet, when people talk about travel today, a majority of people express frustrations with the travel process. Somewhere between the first times they got on an airplane and now, the joy of new places went away. This is due in part to the travel restrictions of late, but somehow, I think that the busy-ness that comes with business travel has taken away some of the mystique of traveling to a city that is not your own.
All in all, I’m incredibly humbled and thankful to have had the opportunity to see new places and new perspectives, and it wouldn’t have happened if it were not for Baylor’s offer to teach me. It’s because of this extension that I can make an attempt not to lose that mystique that comes from new cultures, new ideas, new cities, and new people. Such experiences have given me the urge to see more dynamic cities in this country, and eventually, maybe, other countries. But of course, travel can be draining and stressful, and there’s something to be said about building community at home.
Perhaps next week, I’ll need to talk about home/travel balance!