It's the end of week two as a second year student at the Johnson School. Judging that it's noon on Thursday and I'm on a bus to New York City typing a blog entry, the passing of time is clearly different than it was exactly one year ago today. So what is different? Let's first review the obvious; I'm not inundated with the core. A privilege very much appreciated and though in a way I miss the camaraderie of "getting through it together" I'll take my morning workouts and time to shower any day. Second, I've completed a summer internship, where to my delight, much of last year's material came into play in an extremely helpful way. Imagine that. Now I listen to my professors with endless gratitude, not just with the intent to make my way through the material and to graduation. Third, I no longer need to learn the lay of the land, but rather know where I like to have an evening cocktail, check my email, and who I should talk to about odds and ends at school.
What is not so obvious is the touch of pensiveness that's mysteriously entered into my way of being, combined with an awareness that these are likely the last few months of a relatively carefree existence. Maybe it's the desire to be carefree that makes me so pensive. Or perhaps, it comes from realizing that work is work and those who want to change the world, whether just their own or everyone else's, are going to put in long, hard hours for many years to come. I think though it comes neither from school, freedom of time, nor the prospect of a life long career, but rather the understanding that as much as we try, as much as we are careful to do the right thing, destinies are fragile and cannot truly be hand-picked in spite of our well tuned efforts.
Case and point is what is happening on Wall Street today. Two storied firms, who for all intensive purposes, fully intended to continue on for years to come. But after a weekend, these companies and those working within them are facing a very different type of Monday than they were just one week ago. As a student of business, this is a rather surreal event to watch from the sidelines. The disruption is worrisome, unwanted, and presumably a tough circumstance to navigate through. With that said, and even at the beginning of this commercial catastrophe, it seems to be understood that eventually the dust will clear and those involved will emerge relatively unharmed and perhaps in an even more prosperous situation - albeit a new destiny not previously planned upon, but somehow prepared for.
