A Little Life Update

i thought i'd give a lil update on my life for the next couple of months so people won't wonder why i'm out of commission. Sorry if i haven't returned calls or written back to emails - the last couple of weeks of finals, graduation, moving and family visits has just left me insane and probably not very fun to chat with.

Yes - i have graduated. I am now a full-fledged working adult once again. boo. hiss. i'm not over it yet.

This week, i'm going to be flying back to LA to visit the fam and then to the bay area to finalize all my work stuff, like fingerprinting and TB shots. Hey - i'll be at a school district. That's what they do. For those of you who don't know, I'm going to be a Fellow for The Broad Residency in Urban Education for the next two years in Oakland. The program places us with the management team of large urban school districts across the country to work on different strategic initiatives involving things like operations, budgeting, performance metrics, etc. I'm thrilled and lucky to have gotten the opportunity to do this - it's exactly what i wanted - education, strategy, business. And my particular role involves standardizing what defines success at the 158 schools in Oakland but also working with the parents and community organizers to get there. I had to go through three rounds of interviews including two brutal 12-hour interviews involving group exercises and critique, reading a 40-page case and over 12 one-on-one interviews. wish me luck - here's to believing it was worth it!

After the district goes through all the paperwork to confirm i am not a criminal, i will be celebrating my boy toy's birthday at the end of June (happy bday shout out to dodger, yo! he just LOVES it when i talk like that) and then flying to Morocco for three weeks. It'll be my first time to Africa and it will be an all-girls' trip. Exciting!

I'll be back to the bay area and starting work by August 1st and i can't wait to hang out with my bay area buddies again - don't forget about me! End of August i'll be making one last trip for the year to Egypt for a week with dodger and about 24 other people as part of a kellogg thing. can't wait for the magic carpet ride...

anyway, that's all for now. can't wait to chat with folks soon!

It's Been A Bittersweet Symphony...

What is happening right this moment:

I'm sitting on the floor in the corner of the small dining room of my apartment while my movers are wrapping all the furniture. As i'm watching the movers, I keep falling asleep as we speak (those who know me know that this is one of my talents), which is likely due to the fact that i have literally gotten 6 hours of sleep over the last two days and have been sleeping in a makeshift bed.

I graduated (woohoo! and boo!) on Saturday and was out with friends til 5 am for what we have been calling "one last time" for the last three weeks. Then last night, i stayed up packing til 5:30 am and had restless sleep til 8 am this morning when i had to carry a couch three blocks down the street.

I've been so busy over the last couple of weeks and have tried really hard not to get emotional about graduating. But i think now, as my last box is being sealed and i will be the only thing left in this once warm and now empty apartment, it's really hitting me. We're going to be gone from this place. We will be scattered across the country and the world and will be back to the daily grind - potentially for the rest of our lives.

No more calling friends who live on your floor or across the street just to grab a drink or dinner 5 times a week. No more Monday night poker games that get 15-20 people to come each time at a moment's notice. No more waking up at noon on a Thursday and saying, i should really start my day now. Life has been good (especially if you ignore all those documents that Sallie Mae keeps sending).

It is pretty amazing how deep friendships can run in the span of just two years. We've been through so much together in such a short time. Business school has been a condensed moment of stress, support and growth for all of us and i think we did not fathom the degree to which this would make us closer.

We had a brunch yesterday so that a group of our close friends could finally meet our families. A few of us cried during my friend Bones' little speech (including my mom and my sister and i could have sworn my dad wiped his eye quickly). I suppose part of the closeness is that many people are going through momentous events in their lives at the stage that they go to business school. I have been invited to three weddings since i started school and no doubt will be attending a few more in the next couple of years. I have shared in the celebrations of several babies coming into the world and witnessed friends falling in (and out of) love. I suppose i should see this time as one of those moments in life when you are saddened you are at the end of something great but it is in fact the beginning of so many other good things. To the class of 2006 - may there be more weddings, babies, poker games and celebrations to be had together - it's not goodbye, but see you soon!