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!