I Survived

Is that all you've got?

That's right, I survived Black November. It's really overrated. 

It's interesting to see how different people prioritize and balance their lives. Some focus more on the job search and some on studies. I'm leaning more to the studying part, but I'm shifting towards the job search. Between organizing the job trek to the west coast, the various competitions I've taken part in and studies, I barely had time to breathe, and so I’ve finally succumbed and learned to let go the aspiration towards perfectionism. This capacity to multitask and prioritize and handle extreme load is a motif I hear over and over talking to alumni and really makes Darden grads shine on the job.

 

I allowed myself some time off today and went to my first UVa Basketball game, which turned out to be very exciting.

Tomorrow morning we’re heading towards Manhattan, where we’ll be having the third thanksgiving dinner this week with my brother and my Dad, who’s visiting the US now.

 

In a few days the marathon continues.

Black November

The most infamous time in the Darden program. When you wake up it’s dark. When you come back from school it’s dark. Recruiting stays in high gear and off grounds recruiting is added to it. To top it all off, if it wasn’t enough that we were loaded with 110% human capacity of schoolwork, meaning that 9% of the work can’t be done by an average person giving a 100% (dropping recruiting and everything else for it), the program has most graciously increased the load to about 130% with more pages to read for each case, more pages in each technical note and more pages in more books to read. The only thing that keeps us sane is the Thanks giving weekend seen at the horizon. Every class survives black November, so I guess we will too.

Elections

A very exciting time to be an MBA student, but it is made even more exciting by the elections.

I have never excercized my right to vote when I lived in 

Israel, so this was my first time voting for the US elections. As I write this, I can hear fireworks celebrating the election of the US' first half Afro-American president. This is history being made.

As opposed to Israel, in the US we do not get a day off and you can only vote until 7 pm. Although people should be able to allocate the time to vote, I wonder how this affects the voting rate. 

I must admit that the voting process was pretty painless: an electronic process that although intutive, I can understand how some elderly folks in Florida may find confusing. 

It's funny, but in all the times I've voted in Israel I've never felt like I have today. Actually having a part in shaping the next 4 years of the greatest superpower in the world will do that.

America is certainly moving forward. Who knows, maybe in four years it will be ready for a full Afro-American president, or perhaps even a woman.