Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The MBA- a quick update

About halfway through term-one and knee-deep in work. 
Work, in the form of: school work, homework, group work, resume work, and something I totally didn’t expect- work on myself. 
Yes, I am working on myself…or learning to accept the fact that maybe I have some more work to do on myself than I thought at the outset. 
I’ll leave it at that. 

Linear modeling baffles me to no complex end. 
Marketing is interesting but far too time consuming considering the weekly presentations amid SEVEN OTHER COURSES. 
My Spanish sucks so I am grasping for dear life at the walls of level four so as not to disappoint Señora Obragon from elementary school and sink to level three. I am, after all, a Miami native.
Financial statement management is interesting, but we should have had it pre-term. It actually seems that someone mixed up a file somewhere in the mix and inverted the order of pre-term and first-term- but that's another issue altogether. 
Managerial accounting, I am told, is relatively easy- but at 8:00 am.. on Friday mornings- nothing is “relatively easy.” 
Organizational behavior is second-nature.
The Global Context of Management is brilliant due to our small-group professor and the discussions/debates that are actually relevant to the world we live in. 
And finally- economics…the one subject I managed to avoid throughout my educational career and now I know why.

And on other fronts, in the words of a friend back in the States, “you’re missing out on a lot of action here.” 
The global economy is crumbling. 
Words are thrown around merely for shock-value so frequently that they are starting to lose their impact. I hear- and read- and utilize in my own daily vocabulary, expressions comprised of “disaster,” “catastrophe,” “emergency,” “devastation,” “upheaval,” “staggering,” “crisis,” “turmoil,” etc… They don’t make the impression they should be making at this point due to overabundance in daily discourse. Additionally, because I am so focused on learning how to analyze income statements and create linear models that I have had a hard time actually conceptualizing the fact that we are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression (according to the IMF). 
I wont drone on about this- firstly, because it’s no secret and secondly, nothing I can say will provide any more insight than yesterdays Wall Street Journal or the guy who sat next to me on the subway this morning.

And apparently, we have a new president. That was fast. I feel like Obama just arrived on the scene- (I will leave my personal opinion regarding his experience (or lack thereof) out for the sake of this blog remaining unaffiliated.) All I can say is that I hope- for his sake, my sake, America’s sake, and the world at large- that President Obama delivers. He has promised great things and as wonderful an orator he has proven to be, I hope he is half as good in action as he is with his powers of persuasion.

But in the end, change is what its all about. Obama, taking into account all that his election represents- one of the biggest defining factors was change. Change. Change. Change. And as I mentioned before- I am changing, I am learning what I need to change about myself, what I shouldn’t change, how to change what I should, and what use I can make of this change.
I’m just hoping it doesn’t break me down too much before I can build myself up again and put this change to good use. Maybe I’ll take a page out of Obama’s speech-writers book and mention….”Yes We Can!”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your take on the classes. Also, I completely agree about term one and preterm. Well said.