So it's been awhile again. I've found myself coming up with random thoughts less often in the past six months, likely due to concerns about the present and the future blocking the ability to find the time to procrastinate with nonsense. So to catch up the faithful Kiwi and think aloud a bit, here's what's been up.
I'm writing this from the den in my parents' place out on Block Island, it's early January and surprisingly warm outside. A man can get used to global warming if it stays like this. The past few weeks -- well, months, really -- have been a mixed bag, with the personal/social going reasonably well, and the professional/academic for awhile being extremely tense, but maybe now starting to turn around.
It's been great to be back out on the island itself, and even if my parents and I are stepping on each others' toes a bit much in this time between finishing school and starting the new life, it's been great seeing them, and especially my brother Chris and his twins, Niko and Addy. Not to mention how great it is just to be out on the island and able to catch up on all the important Xbox downloads I've had to put off.
Addison "Cindy Lou Who" Lischke finally meets her match
Niko enjoying a healthy funnel cake breakfast
So while some of the more important concerns in life right now have to do with what's happening next, it's worth it to at least throw a shoutout to the graduate program that after 16 months is now fully completed. Last class attendend on Tuesday 20 December 2011. Last written paper saved and emailed Thursday 29 December 2011. Last exam submitted Saturday 31 January 2011. Done. So how did it end? Was the academia worth it?
Some of the content in the last term's seven classes was fine, with a few strong professors sprinkled in. The dynamic of our "Managing Services" class was amusing, with a bright young Serbian woman co-teaching the class alongside a more experienced yet also more theoretical Catalan hombre. They'd frequently interrupt each other and disagree on topics, yet somehow it worked. Interesting how conflicting ideas can actually help bring across an idea better.
Please lets never have to discuss this again
Other than this, however, most of this fouth and final term was disappointing academically, with much of the content just a rehash of the same strategy and operations topics from the prior year. I was assigned to "Project Management" despite having already taken a class called "Project Management" in our first term. A German professor told us that despite the honor code, if we missed a class for a job interview, he expected a note from the interviewing company explaining why no other time was available.
Additionally frustrating was that half or more of our classes consisted of exchange students there for a single terms. While many were fantastic and contributed a great deal, a few that ended up on my teams couldn't be pushed to do more than an hour's worth of work, total, across the whole course, which surely wasn't helped by being there with pass/fail grading.
What I find most amusing with these types is that most of them seemed to think there was nothing wrong with doing nothing, and if you were to tell them "Listen, [hypothetical name], you're a nice girl but also one of the most spectacularly lazy, non-self-aware people I've ever worked with", she would have likely cried and said I was mean. Which no one wanted. So the rest of us would just do what it took to cover the work.
Yet in the end it was absolutely worth it to both get a chance at the summer internship and spend four more months in Barcelona, and the strength of the classes from September 2010 through May 2011 more that made the MBA worth its cost. Not to mention the people I came to know who I'll never forget. But more on that later, it'll likely be some time before I find the words.
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