Today was a day of recovery, trying to shake out the cobwebs of last nights outing. I'd like to give a special thanks to Rosa over at "Talking Story With Say Leadership Coaching" for her "Writer's Rewards" post which put a smile on my face and warm feeling in my heart for the day.
Now that this two-year MBA is starting to wind down with only my thesis left to complete, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking and planning for the next chapter in my life. It's exciting, scary and a little sad all at once knowing that most of us will be taking positions around the world (we did study an MBA in International Marketing and Management after all!) and will probably not see each other for a very long time if at all.
I can't believe how fast these two years went!
Certainly the good initiatives started for the alumni community are a great start to keeping that connection strong, but the reality is just as after high school and university, people start to travel the individual roads of their life which usually leads to them being pulled away from each other towards the demands of everyday life. People who do not grow together, grow apart.
As for my plans, June will see the finale of my thesis and last 2 strategy classes which I don't actually require for credits but which are certainly of interest. Looking for a job will be a priority of course through July (or longer as the case may be), finally choosing which PHD project/university and study area will be made after the job sitch is clear (I want to do them concurrently) and I'm also planning some serious travels during that month as it'll be tough once the new job starts to be able to get away for that amount of time. Current locations of interest (and cheap deals) are the Canary Islands to learn how to surf (practice for when I visit Al in Oz), Greece islands for an open ended backpacking adventure, Malta and Sicily (I've tried to get to Sicily the last two times I was in Europe without success), Denmark and some other locations around Europe to re-visit friends. A busy list that I'll never get to finish in only one month, but I'll certainly try!
Some upcoming purchases are also in order. It looks like Lenovo (the company that bought IBM's computer hardware business and hence the Thinkpad line of laptops) is going to announce the ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC. This is something I've been waiting for since deciding that I finally need to upgrade my laptop, choosing to make the Tablet PC jump and rumors of the ThinkPad release started to emerge (although Eric Mack has been making a strong case for getting the Tecra M4, especially since I wanted a 14" screen, too bad Lenovo doesn't have a T-line tablet PC yet!).
While we're talking about upcoming purchases, I'm also drooling over getting a Dell 24" flat screen LCD monitor. Somehow I'm trying to convince myself of the productivity gains and eyesight ease that this monitor will deliver, but at $1200 US dollars it's going to have to wait until some of these student loans are paid off :-(
Anyways, getting back to our discussion on goals etc, the month of July will provide lots of time (while not searching for a job or traveling) to get into some productivity tools that I want to read up on like GTD (Getting Things Done), Mind Manager, Active Words, Ink (and other related Tablet PC productivity utilities) as well as some personal reading like those listed on my sidebar and a few others that have been building up over the last couple years.
So that's the summer, should be great. I hope to see you all out for our increasingly frequent BBQ's, road hockey matches and maybe even a late night beer or two ;-)
Once again thanks to Rosa, if I'm ever over to Hawaii the first round's definitely on me! Looks like I'm also going to be checking out her book "Managing with Aloha - Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business" and adding it to my July list of books :-)
Hopefully some Aloha will find its way over to her and all you guys, I'll miss you all :-)
The dawning of a new chapter...
Now that this two-year MBA is starting to wind down with only my thesis left to complete, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking and planning for the next chapter in my life. It's exciting, scary and a little sad all at once knowing that most of us will be taking positions around the world (we did study an MBA in International Marketing and Management after all!) and will probably not see each other for a very long time if at all.
I can't believe how fast these two years went!
Certainly the good initiatives started for the alumni community are a great start to keeping that connection strong, but the reality is just as after high school and university, people start to travel the individual roads of their life which usually leads to them being pulled away from each other towards the demands of everyday life. People who do not grow together, grow apart.
As for my plans, June will see the finale of my thesis and last 2 strategy classes which I don't actually require for credits but which are certainly of interest. Looking for a job will be a priority of course through July (or longer as the case may be), finally choosing which PHD project/university and study area will be made after the job sitch is clear (I want to do them concurrently) and I'm also planning some serious travels during that month as it'll be tough once the new job starts to be able to get away for that amount of time. Current locations of interest (and cheap deals) are the Canary Islands to learn how to surf (practice for when I visit Al in Oz), Greece islands for an open ended backpacking adventure, Malta and Sicily (I've tried to get to Sicily the last two times I was in Europe without success), Denmark and some other locations around Europe to re-visit friends. A busy list that I'll never get to finish in only one month, but I'll certainly try!
Some upcoming purchases are also in order. It looks like Lenovo (the company that bought IBM's computer hardware business and hence the Thinkpad line of laptops) is going to announce the ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC. This is something I've been waiting for since deciding that I finally need to upgrade my laptop, choosing to make the Tablet PC jump and rumors of the ThinkPad release started to emerge (although Eric Mack has been making a strong case for getting the Tecra M4, especially since I wanted a 14" screen, too bad Lenovo doesn't have a T-line tablet PC yet!).
While we're talking about upcoming purchases, I'm also drooling over getting a Dell 24" flat screen LCD monitor. Somehow I'm trying to convince myself of the productivity gains and eyesight ease that this monitor will deliver, but at $1200 US dollars it's going to have to wait until some of these student loans are paid off :-(
Anyways, getting back to our discussion on goals etc, the month of July will provide lots of time (while not searching for a job or traveling) to get into some productivity tools that I want to read up on like GTD (Getting Things Done), Mind Manager, Active Words, Ink (and other related Tablet PC productivity utilities) as well as some personal reading like those listed on my sidebar and a few others that have been building up over the last couple years.
So that's the summer, should be great. I hope to see you all out for our increasingly frequent BBQ's, road hockey matches and maybe even a late night beer or two ;-)
Once again thanks to Rosa, if I'm ever over to Hawaii the first round's definitely on me! Looks like I'm also going to be checking out her book "Managing with Aloha - Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business" and adding it to my July list of books :-)
Hopefully some Aloha will find its way over to her and all you guys, I'll miss you all :-)
The dawning of a new chapter...
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