The First Semester Wrap Up

Well, Gang, we did it.

We survived our first semester of business school.

We learned about linear regression and we spent the first month regressing to our undergrad drinking days.

We spent the next month working our way out of the pile of work, case studies, and papers that accumulated while we were drinking.

Over the semester, we bonded with each other ... and with The Duck. Who knew it'd become our home away from home? We even managed to perform an inter-breakout room wave.

We picked up each other's habits and idiosyncracies, suffered together through the artic tundra known as Room 151, and scoffed at the itty bitty undergrads running around underfoot.

In The G Unit, we busted our butts for Big Jim, soaked up Gandalf's wisdom, valiently tried to keep up with Doctor Deb, untangled our brains after classes with Pair O'meter, and kept straight faces (most of the time) during the Ramrod lectures.

We succeeded in proving we're better than...oops, I mean, as good as, The Elders.

But more than anything else, I'd like to think that we "learned each other something." I've rarely encountered a group of people who have so impressed, entertained, inspired and humbled me. We're figuring out together that life, learning, and friendships are more important than books, grades and GPA. There's something precious about the short time we'll have together in school -- and the fleeting speed with which the semester's end arrived has made it abundantly clear. We'll talk quite a bit, I'm sure, about what we would have done differently over these past four months, but I hope we also focus on what we will do to squeeze the most out of the time we have left. I am quite certain that this group of 100 people will make big things happen for this program in the next year and big changes happen in the world beyond. What a privilege it is to know such amazing colleagues and friends.

As Cervantes said, "Tell me thy company and I will tell thee what thou art." If his words are true, then I am glad to call myself part of this Gang.