The gift of boundary-less friendship

Spending a whole year of your life inside a pressure cooker with 149 other individuals is a challenge, no doubt about that. However by the end of the process you’ll have such strong bonds with those people that you can be certain you’ll have friends for life. This is one of the gifts the MBA gave me and anyone who goes through such a programme knows what I’m talking about.

These are special friends. They are different in nature from the ones I had before. They are scattered all over the world and I don’t talk to them on a daily basis. In spite of distance or irregular contact the interesting part is that whenever we get together it is like time froze. It’s like we are back to the Cambridge times. It’s like we never left.

That is an invaluable gift and the pictures show what happens when we get together three years after the end of the programme in some (not so) random part of the world.

The overwhelming beginning

The pace of a one year MBA can be overwhelming, especially at the beginning when most students are still trying to get used to a whole new reality. It takes time to adapt to being a full time students again, to new people, to a new country, to working in a foreign language (for most of the class, at least). On top of that you are required to start making decisions very early. Financial companies tend to recruit in October/November, which is only a little bit more than one month into the MBA. That’s why prioritising and focusing is paramount.

You’ll have plenty of readings and class preparation to do. The work load will pick up with group work, readings, and exercises. In parallel, you need to prepare your CV, cover letter and think about your application strategy. Heck, you’ll have to think what is it that you want to do after your MBA! These are a lot of things to cope with at the same time. You’ll be making friends at the same time and wanting to go to every social gathering to make the most of your new student life.
I remember feeling exhausted around this time of the year. Speaking in a different language, knowing new people, reading, working, attending classes, researching for career paths, creating CVs, having a social life at the college…a social life at the school….that all can be exhausting! But at the same time, it is a lot of fun and everyone is going through the same. The key is to enjoy it and search support in your newly made friends.

It is very intense…but that’s why you’ll get leanings, experiences and friends for life!