As GO! week comes to a close, I want to reflect on year one as an MBA partner, the adventures I have had, the ups and downs, and most importantly, things I wish I knew a year ago.
GO! week can be an exciting time for many Olin partners. We get to meet other partners who we will be sharing this adventure, but we also hear these stories about how challenging and stressful the first year is from our second-year counterparts, who often share this remark with a smile.
It left me wondering, “what on Earth did we agree to?” So as Turner and I jointly enter year two of the Olin experience, here are a few thoughts.
Dear Year 1 Julie,
Think of this new St. Louis experience as dating.
Picture this: You just broke up with your beloved city of Manhattan and have found yourself in a new arranged marriage with the city, St. Louis. Despite St. Louis’s best attempts at being wonderful in all the ways that it is wonderful, you still find yourself making (unfair) comparisons to New York and let’s face it, as far as you are concerned, there is no place on Earth that is as divine as good ol’ Manhattan.
St. Louis goes to bed early, New York is always awake. That doesn’t mean there aren’t restaurants or bars open (there are). It means that you will meet people who go home after work, and meeting for happy hour isn’t the norm, it’s the exception.
You will get lost in a shopping center or somewhere on a highway without a clue as to where you are.
You will run back to New York as often as you can and hope that there is some way that you could stay even though your airplane ticket is only for the weekend, and that you will board the plane to head back.
But slowly (emphasis on s-l-o-w-l-y) you will come to appreciate St. Louis’s laid- back lifestyle and enjoy the action packed NY weekends for weekends and nothing more or less.
You will eventually come to realize that you can do things in St. Louis that you never got around to in New York (like getting to the gym and learning new crafts). You will come to appreciate the idea that New York and St. Louis are two, completely different cities and it’s unfair to compare the two all the time (it’s okay to compare them some times!)
Then there is the idea that you have to find a new social group. Finding new friends is much like dating. You will go on a lot of ‘friend dates’ that will look like all of those ‘relationship dates’ you once were on.
You will meet the ‘perfect on paper, but not so great in person’ friend; the ‘unrequited’ friend who never calls you back; the ‘good enough for now’ friend that doesn’t share a lot of your interests, but you can go to dinner with and have a nice tim; the ‘my parents’ friends set me up with you’ friend, among many others.
These friend dates much like relationship dating will be frustrating because you want instant great friends NOW. But patience and perseverance will once again win and in time, you will find a group of Olin partner friends that will soon become your rock.
Unfortunately, there is a third person in this relationship, too. And it’s known as the first semester at Olin. Olin will capitalize so much of your partner’s time, you may wonder if he likes Olin more than you. Not only will he be engaged with Olin activities all of the time, but when he does see you, he wants to continue talking about all of the things that Olin has done for him, or share all of the experiences that he has had with Olin. YIKES. It can feel a little crowded.
You may feel alone. You may start to angrily talk to yourself in the car about what he sees in Olin. Sometimes, when you think no one is watching, you may cry. This is where your Olin partner friends come in.
The good news is that they too have a third person in their relationships and they can relate. Together you can huff and puff about all of the time that your respective partners have given to Olin and how they might not even realize that you went from brunette to blonde.
Eventually, you will collectively fall down laughing at the absurdity of it all. Even further, once you accept that Olin will steal your date nights for the next few months and embrace the Olin experience, you will ask, “are you positive there isn’t a networking event tonight? I was hoping to have a girls night….”
Hang in there, Year 1 Julie. There are many wonderful things that await you and your partner. It’s not always going to be easy, but since when did you take the easy route anywhere?
Love,
2nd Year Julie
Photo credit: WUSTL Photo Services
