“How was break?”
It’s a chorus of the same question here at Stern, just one week back to classes after a month long break, with MBA2s eager to catch up over coffee, beer, and finance problem sets. The answer is always somehow the same: a lot of fun, too little sleep, and much needed rest and relaxation.
The MBA1s had a bit of a different break, as many of them stay on campus both to prep for, and participate in, on-campus interviews. That is anything but R&R, I know from experience, but worthwhile–even if you don’t end up with a summer internship when the smoke clears in February. The reason is that the iterative process of mock interviews, research, and preparation is exactly what it takes to land the job you WILL get…whether it’s in January, February or later in the semester. Practice makes perfect, as they say, and at business school it is no different.
For the MBA2s, though, Winter Break meant Thailand, Cancun, and Caracas. It meant mai-tais in Malaysia, trips to see grandma in Orlando, or (for a wise few), some NYC apartment hibernation with a Netflix subscription and little else. There are definitely worse ways to spend one’s break.
For me, I went to California, where my sister’s family is and where my parents spend the winter. It was certainly nice to get some sun, fresh air, and avocadoes (is it just me or do Californians put avocadoes on everything?) Then I switched gears dramatically, went to New Hampshire to go camping a few days. It was a true whirlwind, but a good “productive vacation” if that’s not too much of an oxymoron. I got back just before the semester began.
Thus, it’s taken a few days to “get back in the swing of things” — though I already have a good amount of homework to do! Night classes start this week and then we are back to a full schedule — so pretty quickly people get back to the “b-school groove”. It’s definitely nice to see all my friends and colleagues again.
Yes, so it’s a little cold, a little snowy, a little dreary. And many of us do miss the tropical paradises we visited over vacation; still, NYC in the winter has its charms. It’s a magical, beautiful city when covered in snow.
Winter, you’re alright. Just don’t stay long.
