Last night I turned in the last of my assignments, making me officially done for the semester. What a wonderful year 2010 has been! I was just reflecting on it and was starting to lose track of all the cool things I got to learn, see and experience this year -- and so much of them wouldn't have been possible, or likely, before going back to school. Among the highlights, in no particular order:
1. Travel. Since beginning 2010 in Key West, I've spent the past 12 months going to all sorts of places I'd never been, including New Zealand (where I went skydiving in the photo above), three cities in Australia, Boston, Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore. I also returned to a couple places I hadn't been in a long time, like Los Angeles and, in a couple days, Disney World. That's not bad, considering I'm a full-time student on a shoe-string budget.
2. Concerts, shows and art. I saw my fair share, including Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Kathy Griffin and "La Cage aux Folles" and "Next to Normal" on Broadway. I also soaked in great works of art at the MoMA and the Met. Man, am I gay.
3. Friends. I met, and got to know better, many wonderful people I'd never otherwise know, and caught up with several longtime friends I hadn't seen in ages, especially during my summer in New York. (See 9.) School can be feel a little artificial at times, but I think I found some gems.
4. Romance. I tend to avoid this subject in this blog, because it's personal and has nothing to do with a journalist pursuing an MBA. Then again, maybe it does. Getting to meet interesting, appealing, similarly oriented gentlemen is to some extent a natural and fantastic outcome of shifting from an insular, long-hour work environment in Texas to a more open, densely populated, liberal environment at Yale. I'll just say Cupid has outdone himself.
5. Work. Although the first few months of 2010 were spent coping with internship rejections and nail-biting anxiety, I ended up getting the summer opportunity I most wanted, at the Associated Press, and then, in the fall, securing the full-time job I most wanted, at Deloitte, which will start after school. I know I'm very fortunate on both counts, especially since the economy is still struggling. And although I enjoyed most of the eight years I spent as as print journalist, I'm really excited about going down a high-velocity new career road -- and being able to make loan payments in the process.
6. Health. This was a particularly bad year for the health of people I love. My brother got thyroid cancer and had surgery, my dad was hospitalized twice for nasty falls, and my best buddy is having back surgery today. On the bright side, everybody's still ticking. And for yours truly, it's been a pretty good year -- my worst setback was strep throat. I lost weight, quit smoking, cooked frequently and hit the gym nearly every weekday morning. On the physical-wellbeing dimension, I feel better than I have in a long time.
7. Leadership and activities. I co-founded a club at school, co-led another club, organized a few events, helped change school policy and served as a teaching assistant, second-year advisor, admissions interviewer, online tutor and board member of CABO, the state's LGBT chamber of commerce. All these activities and involvements were new to me as of 2010. Makes me wonder what I did in my spare time before ...
8. Academics. I learned about loads of new businessy things this year, like macroeconomics, operations, HR strategy, corporate finance, media theory, venture capital and statistical modeling. Who knows what had to fall out of my brain to make room for all that stuff.
9. New York. My first visit to the world's greatest city was in October 2002. Since then, I've returned a handful of times, always marveling at it and wondering if I'd like living there. I got a 12-week trial over the summer and was convinced that not only could I do it, but I couldn't not. Best summer of my life. I'm eagerly anticipating moving there after school.
10. Hope for 2011. Perhaps the best thing about 2010 is that it made me genuinely excited about 2011. I can't wait to take 1-9 and crank them all up to 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment