been meaning to do this blog thingy for a while.
not because i'm bursting at the seams with good things to say...mostly because writing is a good thing.
i always intend to write more. my grandfather is always
gently badgering me to. now that i have a reason to write - to stay in touch with friends and family and capture all the bizarre things that i have experienced/will experience while i'm in this strange b-school world - i intend to make myself do it more often.
i think i will be pretty good about posting, because babbling in a blog is a lot better than studying.
by the way, i realize that staying in touch with family and friends in this mass, indirect, electronic way is
less than ideal, but it
is better than hardly staying in touch at all. right??
ugh. whose idea was this grad school thing, anyway?
also, this more cost effective! instead of using my precious day-time peak minutes to talk with a friend or family member, sweetly calling to inquire about the latest in my life, my well being, or simply to find out whether i'm still alive, i can politely and swiftly direct him/her to this blog!
kidding about that. mostly.
so, actually, my initial intention was to make this thing a-line-a-day sort of affair. meaning: i set the low goal of writing one sentence each day. i figured this would be a surefire way to commit to doing this.
i set that goal on september 4 - 16 days ago - and this is only my second time writing something.
the other entry isn't even digital - i wrote it on a pad and paper.
so vintage!
so anyway. in a nutshell, here's what's up:
orientation was fun and strange and tiring and bizarre. i spent a morning, noon, and night with my section, THE BULLFROGS, going through a week of break-you-down-and-build-you-back-up type activities, including a cheering contest (some of you may recall my fear of the 'spirit fingers' i saw all over the kellogg website before school - yeah, now that's me), a talent show, sports-like activities in an olympics-type-event, scavenger hunts, countless name games, and other ice breakers that i thought i had escaped years ago. you can see photos of the week of events
here.
one of our competitive challenges was for each of us to remember the names of every person in our section - there are nearly 70 people in our section. to my great frustration and amusement, the most challenging names for me
were not the international ones, like juan fernando yoshikay furukawa (that's one person), rukmini sivaraman, or chutima khajitjit - but the seven white, blonde guys who all look alike and have standard all-american names: brian houston, kent martin, eric butler, andrew murray... it was impossible.
if you're wondering who we were competing against - it was the other first year kellogg sections - the highlanders, turkeys, moose, buckets, big dogs, poets, and cash cows.
yes, cash cows.
uncle richard: please don't disown me.
the week also included a volunteer day in chicago, talking with high school students about their futures.
as well as bad local bars, dancing wildly to bad music, and drinking bad beer.
i like the kellogg culture. people are very involved. it's a school truly run by students - that wasn't just bullshit in the kellogg brochure.
the dean, dipak jain, seems great. he's very well liked by students and faculty. i had the chance to introduce myself to him, which i did, and told him about my connection to mr. minow who had contacted the dean on my behalf. the dean knew instantly who i was and was pleased i said hello. i appreciated that a lot.
so far, so good. no complaints here. i'm tired, a little sleep deprived. but i really like my classmates - i keep remarking to my dad that i can't find anyone to hate - my schedule is decent, and i'm digging chicago.
oh: i'm running for the kellogg student association board to be the representative of the bullfrogs. this is kind of a big responsibility, and i would really like to do it. but i'm running against 4 other people in my section - in fact, i think we have the highest number of candidates of any section. i've been campaigning all week - which has amounted to emailing, writing (70-ish) personal notes, reaching out to people... no speeches, thankfully. we'll see. elections are tomorrow. i think i have a pretty decent shot.
i have my very first grad school final tomorrow (!!!) on the pre-term class on leadership and organizational development i've been taking for the past two weeks. this explains why i've decided to write my first blog post tonight.
i'm going to get back to studying now.
after i vacuum that little spot of dirt off my runner, and dust my desk lamp.
hopefully i'll be back. with more frequent, shorter posts.
i miss everyone.
