Yoga Pants

There is something odd happening on campus.  It was happening when I was at home so it shouldn’t surprise me, but for some reason I didn’t think it would be the same here.  Everyone in my class is married.  Or engaged.  Or in a long term relationship.  I’m not sure why, but I thought people going back to school would be more single and unattached but it’s a lot more of a mix than I anticipated.  After class one day this week we all went to the bar (at 3:30…) and I realized I was standing in a circle of five very attractive guys … two married, one engaged, and the other two … Have equally attractive boyfriends.  I am pretty sure dating someone in my class would be a disaster since we have all of the same classes for two years … and I can only imagine the awkward situations that kind of a breakup would put me in.

I was complaining to one of my friends before I went out for this run and told him:

Me: “I thought I was going to meet someone in grad school … They’re all married or gay!”

Him: “Study then!”

Me: “I’m just going to go running around Harvard’s campus and see what happens.”

Him: “Wear your yoga pants.”

208 Miles Down 107 Miles To Go

Balancing Alcohol and Friends

I love love school.  I'm starting to feel like a bit of an alcoholic though.  The stress level is so incredibly high, that people are basically sprinting to the bar next door as soon as class is over.  I didn't realize school was going to be like this.  Sometimes I feel like I'm not really learning, like I'm just memorizing things to get through the next exam and hoping they'll pick that material to test me with.  It's insane, I'll learn three subjects in seven weeks.  Rapid fire.  I've just started picking things that I won't do ... and hoping for the best ... I think I'm supposed to focus on my career also at some point ... Right now, this is on the back burner.

I started missing non-alcoholic bonding.  So much that I realized, I can have it if I plan it.  So I invited some friends over and had a nice dinner and couple bottles of wine.  I thought I'd have 3-4 girls over, but I ended up with so many people saying yes that I had to go buy more wine glasses!  It's not completely non-alcoholic, but it was nice to change the scenery from the bar down the corner.  It's weird to think that I didn't know anyone I am friends with now two months ago, and now we spend 24/7 together.  There's no better way to make you feel like an adult than to have a "dinner party."  I even had wine glass charms ... Not completely grown up though, they were mustaches.

It's also a little bit weird to have a group of girl friends to hang out with.  I've always had one or two best friends, and sometimes girls can be so overwhelming that I'm surprised I had such a good time with everyone.  I am sort of starting to miss guy friends though ... And it's so weird to become guy friends with guys who are married.  You can't hang out with them the same you can guys who are single.  I really miss having guys to hang out with and joke around with.  So much more easy going, and flirty fun.  I feel like I'm just finding balances between lots of things now.  Career and school.  Alcohol and non alcohol bonding.  Girl friends and guy friends.

204 Miles Down 111 Miles To Go

Pescatarians and Flexitarians

I woke up this morning dreaming of regression lines.  My mind is literally spinning from everything I have learned.  I have been here two weeks ... and I am taking midterms.  I don't know how people who didn't go to business school can keep up with this amount of work.  I have only had three classes and we've plowed through half of each book.  I don't even have my things from Chicago here yet!

I've also decided to make another big life change.  No meat in my fridge.  I would be eating vegetarian, but I have just moved to a place where seafood is unbelievable and I can not pass up a bowl of clam chowder.  It will be the reason I leave with a muffin top.  It's been about six months since I regularly ate meat, and honestly I can not believe how much better I feel.  It's such a huge difference that when I have the option to eat it now I don't want any because I know it's going to make me feel bogged down and sluggish.  Interesting how my week of vegan life made me give up meat alltogether.  I found it helpful though ... not to tell anyone I was vegetarian because I always have this conversation:

Stranger: "You're vegetarian! But you eat fish"

Me: "Well I like fish, so I eat that.  I just don't eat meat a lot anymore."

Stranger: "You're pescatarian?"

Me: "WTF is that."

Stranger: "Oh you must be a flexaterian."

Whyyyyy must we label everything.  I just want to do what I want when I want to do it.  Although, with midterms happening this week, I have barely been remembering to eat at all...

200 Miles Down 115 Miles To Go

What's in the fridge?

I usually never write about a one mile run anymore ... In fact, I haven't run one since February (eight months ago) when I started this little personal challenge.  Today though, I really needed this.  I have midterms next week.  I've heard rumors and stories about how people go to graduate school, get swept up in the sea of classes and networking and emerge two years later.  Knowing several friends that have done this, I have always been annoyed with it.

I have sent several apologetic text messages this week.  This morning I opened my fridge and stared at it for 10 minutes.  Literally stared at it.  It was 6:45 am, and I was staring at my fridge unsure of what I was doing there.  How many possible things could one be doing at 6:45 am in front of a fridge?  So today, I ran to yoga, I did an intense workout, and I biked home.  My legs are jelly, and my brain is mush, but people keep telling me I'm learning things.

196 Miles Down 119 Miles To Go

My Daughter Lives in Boston

Another four miles, and it's starting to feel like nothing.  Someone told me recently, "You never really get mad ... What is your outlet?"  Sometimes ... It's chips, but mostly now it's running.  I've even started getting a lot of compliments on my legs, which is weird but appreciated.

I had a weird thing happen to me today.  My dad was telling me a story ... as he frequently does ... He wore his "Boston Red Sox" hat at work on a Friday.  Someone came up to him and started hassling him because he's supposed to be a Chicago Cubs fan.  Telling him he shouldn't be wearing that hat unless he had been to Boston and sat in the big green monster of Fenway Park.  He looked at the guy and said, "My daughter lives in Boston.  She took me to Fenway, where I bought this hat."

Holy *&^%.  I live in Boston.  It doesn't feel drastically different than Chicago.  Sometimes I honestly can't even believe I live here.  I haven't even been here a month yet ... I saw an email on my phone today from Pepsi.  Asking me to apply to a job in the suburbs of Chicago.  I realized that if I hadn't changed my life from the path it was on ... I could be working for a company in the suburbs with a boyfriend I didn't really want to be with.  I'm so happy I changed my whole life, as hard as it was it is worth it.  Because today I am living in Boston, getting an MBA, and making more friends than I did in the two years I lived in Chicago.

195 Miles Down 120 Miles To Go

Consulting is Coconuts

I have a problem.  I am competitive.  Not outwardly, but I want other people to see me and go “wow … she’s so smart.”  Before I decided I wanted to go back to school I was constantly back and forth because I graduated with a business degree, and started my career in consulting at the #1 place to launch your career.  So why would I spend 100,000+ give up two years of my life and get another degree?  I finally skiied into a tree and was thrown into one of the messiest industries in the United States: health care.  After spending those two weeks in the hospital and dealing with two and a half years of physical therapy and five surgeries, I found a place where my hard work would literally be improving peoples lives.  So here I am in school to learn health care, and this week I found myself at a consulting club meeting.  There’s something about the fact that so many people want to do it, and I already have that makes me want to say “Hey!! I did that!!!” or “Hey!! That company will hire me!!”  I have no idea why … I don’t want to do that job!  I get swept up in everyone else getting excited about it and think that what they want could be what I want, even though I know it’s not.  It’s funny that when a company with a big name in the consulting industry comes on campus, suits come out and business cards, and everyone hovers around them in the hallways “networking.”  Don’t be a sheep if you’re not a sheep!!

It’s sort of like when your friend opens an almond joy and starts eating it.  I’m not hungry … but I want it.  Then I take a bite and realize I don’t like coconut.  I’m glad I at least can recognize now that Consulting is coconuts.  So I’m joining some health care clubs, and I’m making a plan to find some people in the industry to job shadow and informational interview.  (I’d like to stop saying things like networking and informational interview as soon as possible … But I think until I have an internship set up, I have to keep talking like the punch line of a show like “The Office.”)

191 Miles Down 124 Miles To Go

My Two Paths

It happened.  I feel old.  The undergraduates are everywhere.  I had to google how many Boston undergraduates there are because it feels like 100,000.  I guess it's only about 16,000 ... I met one today.  The conversation went a little like this:

I see a sign that says "Welcome Boston University Class of 2017"  I laugh.
Random Undergraduate Boy: "Are you in the class of 2017 too?"
Me: "No ... I'm in the class of 2015"
Random Undergraduate Boy: "Oh! You're a junior!"
Me: "No ... I'm 27."

He looks confused, I walk away with probably the same look on my face.  Other than running today, literally the only other thing I did was study.  I knew this was going to be a lot of work, but holy crap it's a lot of work.

I am proud of one thing that I've changed.  My running path.  I didn't really have a choice, but I haven't run the same path since I've been here.  I use to think that running the same path would help me stay consistent, but it turns out its way more fun to be adventurous.  I did the same loop in Chicago over and over and over, and now I'm just running all over the city.  I feel like my whole life was rapid consistency in Chicago: boyfriend, job, work out, cook, sleep, repeat.  Now every single one of those things is on a completely new path.  New life path and new running paths = happy girl.

187 Miles Down 128 Miles To Go