Party Time

Happy belated Mother’s Day and welcome to a new week! When I called my mom yesterday, she and my dad were at a casino and she told me that I “used to be so cute.” What can I say? The woman tells it like it is! 😉

This month is turning out to be super busy, with some of the action already come and gone… On Thursday, Chris and I went to see Captain America: Civil War. Great humor, action, and story – Gotta love those Marvel movies. Although, I’m pretty sure many years from now, the whole world is just going to be sponsored by Marvel the way things are going. We’ll walk down Marvel Road to go to the Hulk Chipotle and order an Iron Man burrito bowl before paying with Captain American Express (see what I did there?). You heard it here first!

After a full day of class (morning class from 8:30-11:30, then afternoon class from 1:30-4:30), I was already pretty tired come movie time, but ended up going to some classmates’ parties in my apartment building afterward anyway. In retrospect, maybe I should have taken it easier because a bunch of Chris’s childhood friends came into town the next day and were ready to RAGE.

On Friday, we stayed out until 4am the next morning. On Saturday, there were boozy brunches, Kentucky-Derby-watching, and ping pong-playing to be done, followed by another night out.

In a (secretly) fortunate turn of events, just when I was ready to call it anyway around midnight/1am-ish, I wasn’t allowed into a club because of the canvas shoes I was wearing (we had been out all day, so I never got a chance to change into “evening” wear). While I’m sure we can all agree that’s a generally dick move on the part of bars/clubs everywhere, I was not torn up about it and Chris and I all too happily accepted and went home. Our friends followed not-so-shortly after at 6am!

Definitely an exhausting, but fun, weekend. Let’s just say I was pretty happy to lay around quietly for the rest of Sunday before watching some Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley at night.

And now, here I am, tackling another busy week! Apart from the usual school stuff, there are a few student events I’m attending, including a spring formal boat party on Thursday – The weather is currently forecasting rain, though, so we’ll see what happens. Chris’s family is visiting next weekend, too, so it should be another busy one (that thankfully will involve less alcohol).

Boston, You’re My Home

Another week has begun! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was full of school comedy shows, delicious brunches, and (unfortunately) some midterm studying.

Although one of the best parts of going back to school full-time has been the extra days off, it has definitely taken me a while to get used to it. I’m so used to having to count my vacation days or to coordinate trips with paid holidays, or strategically “working remotely,” that I default to not planning trips at all (I just assume I can’t do it, haha).

Luckily, I am trying to rectify this now and take advantage of this freedom while I have it. I realized a few weeks ago that I haven’t seen my sister and her family (my brother-in-law, and the funniest nephew and niece everrrrr) since Christmas, and I probably wouldn’t get a chance to go back to my east coast hometown until after my summer internship is finished. I don’t have classes on Mondays or Fridays, and coupled with my sister’s birthday last weekend, it was the perfect storm of reasons to make a quick getaway to Bah-ston!

I admittedly am not the most up-to-date on things going on in MA anymore, despite having been born and raised there. I don’t have a Boston accent (which a lot of people in the Midwest are very surprised by – I have no idea why that would shock people any more than the fact that I do not personally know Ben Affleck and Matt Damon), and I don’t religiously follow the hometown teams. But whenever someone asks me where I’m from, I think of Massachusetts first and probably always will. Last weekend was a quintessential trip home for me, complete with Boston Chinatown dim sum, exercising my auntie skills, and general bickering with the fam. Some choice convos from the weekend:

Teasing my nephew that I might wet my bed and need to share with him when I stayed at my sister’s house – 

“Um, Christina Yi Yi (Chinese term for aunt)? I don’t think grown-ups wet the bed.” – nephew

“Why do you think that?” – me

“My mommy and daddy don’t wet the bed.” –  nephew

“Maybe they just don’t tell you.” – me

“…No, they would tell me.” – nephew

He has also learned the word, “unfortunately” – 

“I love this yogurt!” – nephew

“What’s your favorite flavor?” – me

“Strawberry banana!” – nephew

“Yum! Is that the flavor you’re eating now?” – me

“No, unfortunately, this is blueberry.” – nephew

Watching the Game of Thrones season premiere with my parents, who are superfans – 

“It’s 9:06! Why hasn’t it started yet? Are we going to miss the last 6 minutes now???” – dad

“This is dumb. I already finished my ice cream and it hasn’t started yet.” – mom

“Head toward The Wall. Jon Snow is Lord Commander there!” – Theon Greyjoy (paraphrased)

“NOPE.” – mom

“Myrcella!” – Queen Cersei

“NOPE.” – mom

Is it just me, or should I start live-tweeting my parents’ commentary on Game of Thrones? It cracks me up!

All in all, a great trip. Looking forward to doing some more traveling while I can 🙂

1 Second Everyday

I feel like I’ve had this problem ever since leaving college, but I sometimes have a hard time remembering things I’ve done. Especially while I was doing the 9-to-5 thing, my days were so routine. When I had an hour-long commute to and from client sites, I often came home and did nothing until I had to go to sleep early so I could get up the next morning and do it all again. In short, the days seemed to blend together and I had to think hard if someone asked me what I had been up to.

During last month’s spring break, my brother introduced me to a new app called “1 Second Everyday,” launched by TED Talk speaker, Cesar Kuriyama:

What I really like about this idea is that it’s so simple and solves a lot of modern-day annoyances. It helps your memory, it motivates you to use your days productively, and it frees you from feeling compelled to constantly document everything on your phone. Just record your 1 second and then truly enjoy the rest of the moment.

I’ve been using the app for just under a month now and love the results. Usually when I add each day’s 1-second clip, I’ll review the whole stream of what I’ve recorded so far and I do think each clip triggers a much more vivid memory of that whole event or day than I would have otherwise been able to recall. Now that this is part of my routine, too, I definitely try harder to get out and not be a bum every day – Gotta have something cool to film for my second! Here’s what I’ve been capturing so far…

I also like how, if you’re diligent with this, you end up with an hour-long video for every 10 years of seconds you film. That’s awesome! I do intend to keep this up as long as I can (and can remember). We’ll see how it goes!

About the Past 3 Months

So…a lot of time went by fast, huh?

I’m not going to lie, it has not been sunshine and rainbows. Between being really overwhelmed by school, internship searching, and general personal stuff, there wasn’t a whole lot I wanted to share here for the past few months. Hindsight really does wonders, though. Now that I have emerged from the other side of everything, I have new appreciation for some of those rough patches.

I was bumming hard about school for a while. Not so much about the classes themselves, although I was taking a really challenging stats course that consumed a lot of my time, but more about everyone’s general attitude toward them. I’m in a program that really touted itself on academics as a differentiator – I was led to believe that at this business school, the experience is not just about fluffy stuff like expanding your network, but about actually learning something. And I think this is still true if you put in the effort to get that experience (read: be a nerd), but I’ve been a little disappointed in that I don’t think the classroom is as different from other business schools as they seem to want everyone to believe. I have a lot of classmates who skip classes, shirk group work responsibilities, and are outspoken about how little they care about the curriculum. I’m not saying that I want to be stuck studying and doing homework 24/7, but part of the reason I’m doing this whole business school thing is that I really want to learn new things and I take that seriously. It can just be a lot tougher to do when no one around you seems interested.

Thankfully, a lot of my experience seems to have been driven by the types of classes I’ve been taking, which were largely curriculum requirements. I’ve taken a few now that have been incredibly engaging and helpful to me, and – finally! – I’ve taken them with other like-minded students. Even that super hard stats course was worth it as it has super-prepared me for another stats-based class I’m taking now. I must be pretty dorky for complaining about how classes aren’t cool enough here, but it really was a downer for a while and I’m glad things are looking up on that front now.

In terms of the other stuff, I’m happy to say that all that dreadful interview prep is over and paid off! I’m sticking around Chicago for the summer, working in brand management for a great company that I’ve admired as long as I’ve lived here. I’m very excited about it – Fingers crossed that all goes well! I will definitely recap my recruiting experience at some point, because it’s just too weird not to write about.

A much-needed spring break mid-March was about the last push I needed to bring me out of my funk. I got to escape the midwestern winter blues and head to the west coast to visit some family. It was glorious, and here are some pics:

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Here’s to finishing year one of b-school strong!

 

Another Week Down

I’ve made it to another Friday!

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but interview preparation has taken over my life. I’ve actually completed an actual interview now and have at least 4 more coming in the next few weeks, so there really is nothing else new in my life besides dumb interview stuff.

Walk me through your resume!

Tell me about a time when…!

Gotta make those interview stories SOAR!!!! (Situation, Obstacle, Action, Result = Worst acronym ever)

Anyway, no fun eats this week. Here’s a picture of some snacks we put together for a friend visit last weekend:

Getting my hair cut today. Otherwise, I’m thinking of scheduling some vegging out time latahs – whoo! Happy weekend!