Goal!!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a goal-oriented person.  As a result, I tend to have multiple to-do lists going at any one time.  However, there is one to-do list that reigns supreme; it is my annual birthday list.  Every year on my birthday, I make a list of items that I would like to get accomplished.  It’s not really a bucket list because I don’t see it as a list of things to do before I die.  It’s a list of things that I’d like to get done to be able to live my life to the fullest.

Fifteen years ago, I added “Go to grad school” on my list.  This item languished on my list for 10 years before I crossed it out and wrote “Go to Harvard.” That revised goal was on my list for 5 years before I was able to make it happen.  I’m still not sure how it came to pass, but last year on my birthday, I was able to check it off. (Yee haw!)

I have 3 more months until my next birthday, so I pulled out my list to make sure I was on track to getting some of my goals accomplished.

Goal 1: Graduate from Harvard with a MPA

Goal 3: Lose 30 lbs in the 10 months that I am away at school.

Goal 8: Do humanitarian work outside of the US

Goal 13: Plan trip to Hawaii, as an after graduation/birthday present

Goal 20: Read 5 Best-Sellers

Goal 34: Cook from scratch 1 day a week.

Goal 35: Reach out to one old friend every week

Goal 38: Find a job

This year, I am able to scratch off more than 2 things on my list, but the items I have listed should give you an idea of a few of things that I consider to be important to me.  It has been very hard to make this list a priority while going through this program because many things have been competing for my attention. 

As I get into the last 100 days of this program and prepare to transition to life outside of the “Harvard Bubble” I will use my list as a barometer of how true I was able to stay to myself.  I know that a goal similar to my “Go to grad school” goal may be on the list for a long time before I am able to mark it done.  The most important thing is that I shouldn’t be deterred.

I think there is power in writing down my needs, wants and desires.  For me, it keeps me focused.  It also reminds me of how much I can accomplish once I commit to something in writing regardless of what else is going on in my life.

My family thinks I’m a more than a little nerdy. There has been more than one joke at my expense about me doing my “research” and “adding it to my to-do” list. But that’s OK. It’s a part of who I am, and sometimes I have to laugh about it too.

I’m hoping that my experiences at Harvard will unleash my imagination and allow me to set even loftier goals this year. I know that I have the potential to achieve great things and it is my desire that this year’s birthday list (to be drafted in Hawaii, mind you) will be EPIC.

A long weekend

I will admit that I have been a bit negligent in keeping this blog updated.  It’s not from a lack of desire.  I’ve been busy…or tired. As of this posting, there are 103 days before graduation. 

This weekend, I took a trip back to Chicago.  It’s been an emotional trip.  I had a friend get engaged and another get married.  I signed the papers to put my condo on the market after deciding that the next stage in my life may not include Chicago.  I went to an ICU to see a friend’s mom who has suddenly fallen ill. I helped to make preparations for my brother to move back in with my mom. I saw my sister, her husband, and the kids.  I ate Girl Scout cookies. I slept when I could, and now I’m at the airport waiting for a flight that is currently delayed two hours.  

I began my final semester a couple of weeks ago.  So far, so good. My perspective is much different than when I first arrived.  Course registration and bidding went without a hitch. Since I fulfilled my graduation requirements last semester, I was free to choose pretty much whichever courses I wanted to take.  I think I made some good selections and left a bit of flexibility in my schedule to enjoy a few of the intangibles that come with being a student at the Kennedy School.

My journey this past 200 days has been less about academics and more who I am and who I want to be. I’m not flunking out, but then again, I’m not dazzling anyone with my academic prowess.  On the flight from Boston to Chicago earlier this week, I was seated to next to a woman with whom I struck up a conversation.  She’s a professor at one of the arts colleges in the Boston area.  She teaches theater and human rights. It was through my 3 hour conversation with her that I realized that my dream is viable and that I may need to think outside the box to make some things happen and that the things that happen may not happen the way I planned.  I have her card and I plan to hang out with her several times before graduation.  We’re kindred spirits; feisty women of color who want to make life better for our contemporaries and those that come after us.  She’s doing it through the arts, and I want to do it through business.

The fact that life is going on at full speed while I am trapped in the Harvard “bubble” has caused me to be a bit more introspective and reflective than I might normally be. I realize what I’m missing, but at the same time I appreciate everything that I’m gaining. Pressing the reset button on my life has been more difficult, complicated, emotional, heartbreaking, exciting and exhilarating than I could have ever imagined.

I’m still quite stressed about finding my next work opportunity.  My hairstylist (and others) has said that I will find a job and not to worry.  My response to her: Every whore on the corner can find work.  I need to find the right work!