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And It Comes to An End…

After two very long years, I am finally done with business school. For some of you, you’re probably saying, “Wow, that went by so quickly.” For others (mostly the Lovely Suse and the rest of my family) you are saying “Thank god it is finally over.” This has without a doubt been the toughest thing that I’ve ever done, not so much for the difficulty of the actual class material, but for the frantic pace that I’ve had to maintain for the last two years. Maintaining a full-time job, being a full-time husband and father, and being a full-time student pretty much pushes you to the edge of what a person can physically and mentally accomplish. Over the course of these past two years, I believe that I’ve had a total of four weeks off from school, and that includes holiday breaks. For those other 100 or so weeks, there have been cases to read, online discussion boards to participate in, papers to write, business and marketing plans to develop, presentations to prepare, seemingly endless conference calls that last until the wee hours, team dynamics to contend with, and classes to attend. Don’t get me wrong. It’s been an incredible experience with a group of supremely talented classmates, and I’ve crammed more information into my head in less time than I ever thought possible. I’ve learned so much that I hope to apply to my future endeavors, and I’ve have had the opportunity to learn from some truly great teachers (and sufferered through some pretty terrible ones).

So now what? That’s the question that obviously comes next. What the hell are you going to do with yourself now that you have this fancy-pants degree? Well, let’s take a few steps back and talk about why I chose to put myself through this in the first place. I don’t think it should come as a surprise to those of you who know me that I was not exactly content with the career path that I was on. After realizing for a number of years that I was on a path towards boredom and dissatisfaction without any idea of how to change that, I also realized that I didn’t have the skills to do much else. Business school would be an opportunity to gain some important and marketable skills that would hopefully give me a chance to take a new direction. I’ve never been one of those people who completely loved their job and couldn’t wait to get started every morning, but I’m also realistic enough to know that very few people experience that. I just want to be proud of what I do on a daily basis. Whether it’s a company or a technology or a group of people that I get to work with every day, I want to be excited, challenged, and motivated to perform every day. I know that my next job will not likely be my dream job, but it will be a step in that direction. What do I want to be when I grow up? I’ve got some ideas.

Thanks to my fellow classmates who have made this experience as great as it was and whom I realistically would not have made it through without. And of course, to the Lovely Suse and the Lovely Tess: Thank you for putting up with me for the past two years. Never once did you question me having a Friday night conference call (ok, maybe once or twice) or having to spend every weekday night doing homework or taking my computer on vacations or being away at school every month. I couldn’t have done it without your love, support and encouragement.

Now, it’s back to reality a bit. I’ve got some catching up to do. Books, movies, TV shows, sleep, family, friends, and some projects. I’ll hopefully finally have some time live a normal life and take some vacation in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait. I think we’ve earned it.