The first-years have now finished the core and us second-years only have one semester left. I am always amazed at how fast this experience has gone by. They say that time flies when you are having fun so I guess that is true in this case as well. The end of December and January is a big travel period for many Sloanies. I am currently sitting in the airport in Ft. Myers catching a plane back to Boston for a week and then heading to South Africa for almost a month on January 1st for what promises to be a life-changing experience.
My marathon training is in full swing - you can check out my training blog (and donate if you feel so inclined) here: http://go.liverfoundation.org/site/TR/RunforResearch/RunforResearch?px=1514001&pg=personal&fr_id=1650 I ran 8 miles yesterday and have a team 12-mile run this Saturday. What that means is that I need to watch what I eat on Christmas which is not an easy thing to do. The Boston Marathon is known as one of the hardest marathons so my training will definitely be kicking up a notch but I embrace any challenges that come with it as long as I stay healthy. The cool thing about my running group is that we actually run on the official course most Saturdays. The not cool thing is that I have to get up at 6 in the morning for these runs. The good news is that it is all for a great cause (who doesn't value a healthy liver?) and will be a lifelong accomplishment and fulfillment of a dream for me. There are also many Sloanies that somehow find time to run so I never lack a training partner... in fact, marathons are, as I have discovered, quite contagious. I even know of a classmate who is running a 100-mile ultra-marathon. Now that is dedication.
Classes wrapped up for the fall and overall I feel like I learned a lot. Business Law was probably my biggest surprise. John Akula is a really good teacher and made what sounded like a dry subject quite fascinating. I also took a couple of good marketing classes by Dr. Prelec - one on the qualitative aspects of marketing and one on the quantitative aspects. I learned to use and analyze conjoint analysis pretty well and found the research very interesting.
Ambassadors has wrapped up until Spring, I met a lot of prospective Sloanies and I love being a part of their (your) experience when visiting MIT. To me, what makes MIT so special is the friendliness of the students and staff. I have truly had the time of my life here and will be sad to graduate. I say that with the caveat that I am tremendously excited about the future and cannot wait to get my career started... but that should speak to how much fun I have had here and how much I have learned. I will hopefully see a lot of you in the Spring as well, as I will be chairing AdMIT Weekend.
My flight is boarding so I have to go. Take care for now, Happy Holidays and safe travels!!! As always, any questions, feel free to reach out! (deirdreh@mit.edu)
p.s. My South Africa trip can be followed here: http://clickdiagnostics.wordpress.com/
