A day in the life

It’s been two weeks now since my last post and a lot has been going on. I’ve had a few tests, assignments and attended tons of social events. I’ve eaten more pizza in the last three weeks than I’ve eaten within the last year. No more Pizza for me!
The materials taught in Business school are not too technically difficult. The problem is that there’s simply no time to really study the materials the way one would in a BS or even an MS program. The reason being that there are too many events competing for your attention. I’ve picked three social and career clubs to be very active in. One cannot afford to be actively involved in too many activities. I applied, interviewed and was successful in getting appointed to an advisory board that I’m very passionate about. Very excited about this.
As if life is not hectic enough, things will be kicked up a notch later this month when recruiters start coming for their information sessions. I also have a career fair to attend in Atlanta later in the month. I’m glad Kenan-Flagler starts earlier than most other schools. A friend from another top business school called to let me know that he cannot attend the Atlanta career fair because he doesn’t see himself facing a recruiter at this point. He cannot convince himself on what he’ll do when he grows up let alone convince a recruiter. I advised him not to go if he does not feel confident so he doesn’t weaken his school’s brand at the event. As for me, my resume has been super refined to the one page B-School format and I have interview prep sessions planned out. Even if I don’t interview, the fair will be a good opportunity to practice my newfound toastmaster skills. Thank God for a long holiday weekend. I’ve been able to catch up on my sleep, chill out a bit at a football game, and re-energized.

Here’s what my typical day looks like.

6:15am: Alarm goes off. I turn it off

6:30: Backup alarm from the radio starts buzzing. This time I get up. Crank up the volume of the radio so I can listen to the news on NPR while in the shower. This is the last chance I’ll have throughout the day to know what’s going on in the real world.

7:30: pick up (or get picked up) by members of my carpool.

7:45: Grab a cup of Coffee at Café McColl before heading to my 8am class

8am-12:20pm: Have three classes back to back with 10 minutes break in between to change classrooms.

12:30 – 2pm: Lunch time. This is where the pizza eating part comes in. Usually at this time I’ll have a club activity, study group meeting, career event etc to attend at this time. All the clubs serve pizza at their kickoff events. We are gradually moving past that stage now and getting to the Brown Bag events. Brown bad means “Bring your own lunch”.

2-6: Catch up on emails. More meetings with study group, peer mentor, tackle assignments, case readings, class review sessions (These sessions get into more details that may have been skimmed over in the main class)

6-7: Go home and eat dinner if there’s no outing planned. If there is, look over what is left on my to-do list. Decide if I should go to the event or not. Make sure I’m back home by 10 if I still have a lot to do for the day. This is also when I try to work out.

10:30 till 2am: I keep telling myself I need to sleep by midnight but it never happens. I realize I only have less than 4.5 hours before the first alarm goes off. Close all books and shut down laptop.

I should shutdown now. It’s 1:30am. And so the journey continues….