Reflections: Year 2, going by quickly

Post by:
Lauren Abrahams
MS-MBA 2011
Public & Nonprofit Management
MBA Council, PNP Club, Net Impact

Tomorrow at 7am I will click on the “register” button and sign-up for Spring 2011 classes. It’s hard to believe that these are the last classes I will take at BU. It’s my last chance to take a class that will round out my resume, or to finally sign-up for that class that everyone says you can’t leave BU without taking. I didn’t think it would be this difficult, but how do I choose between a class that seems practical for my career aspirations and one that sounds incredibly intriguing, but is not quite career-related? And then, of course, is the secret (or not so secret) dream of every second-year: to only have class three (or two!) days a week so that we have time to “work” and “search for jobs.”

All of this class planning has made me think about each day, each MBA event, each dinner with friends a bit differently than I had been. All of the sudden I find myself walking down the street thinking “this is the last Nov. 1 that I will spend in Boston” or “this is the last MBA Halloween Party that I will attend.” It feels sort of silly since, until this past week, I’d only lived through one Nov. 1 in Boston and attended one MBA Halloween Party—it’s not like I have a huge history to reflect on. But I think it captures the essence of what the BU MBA program is like.

We all uproot and move to Boston (and even if you already live here, your daily life changes so much I imagine that it’s kind of like uprooting…) and are thrown into a whirlwind of classes, networking, info sessions, and new friends. By the time the second-year rolls around, things become “normal”—you ‘re back in the swing of classroom learning, networking becomes a bit less awkward, you realize that you don’t have to attend every info session, and friends become family. And just as that happens, you start looking ahead to life post-BU degree and you start to feel things tugging at your roots again.

I’ve decided, though, that even with a move back to California, a new place to live and a new job (fingers crossed!) looming ahead of me, I won’t lose sight of what’s right in front of me now: three more East Coast seasons and a lot of time to spend with friends. And these last classes that I’ve spent so much time agonizing over, of course.