MIA, AOA's, and other TLA's

Coming into business school I thought I'd experienced a lot, thought I knew a lot, thought i was a pretty capable guy.

Nothing. Nothing prepares you for this.  Business school overtakes your life; it is your life.  You rush from class to studying, group meeting to presentation, and somehow, you don't go insane.  You start to think an Outlook calendar with appointments from 8AM to 10PM with only one double-booking is a "light day".  You ask your friend "is this Monday or Wednesday"... which causes your friend to promptly check his Treo to confirm that yes, it is Monday (ah, but what month?).  I actually got upset with my new version of Outlook because it defaulted my calendar to only the 5 "weekdays" in its main view; come on guys, 5 days isnt enough to do anything... 7 is barely enough. 

Some of you (all two of my loyal readers... hi mom and dad!) might have noticed I haven't written in, oh, two weeks.  TWO WEEKS.  That seems like yesterday. Honest.  It seems like it was only a matter of hours ago.  In two weeks I've given 7 presentations, finished several assignments, read hundreds of pages of textbooks, prepared 4 papers, been in countless meetings, attended the Capitalist ball (think Prom for grownups), had a little fun, slept a little, and managed to find time to, oh, go to CLASS.  I actually traveled to California for a presentation last Thursday, something i penciled into my calendar like most people block off time for a doctor's appointment. I was actually looking forward to the 10 hours of flight time because it gave me time to study.   Back in the "real world" I used to think cramming in a trip to the west coast and 4 important meetings during that same week week made me a "stud"; what a joke.  This last week,I had 3 classes and 2 group meetings the same day i left for California. Efficiency has a totally new meaning for me now. 

I don't tell you accepted applicants this to scare you off; quite the contrary.  Just sit back, relax, and strap in for the ride.  It's going to be hard... sometimes, it's going to take all you've got.  But, in the end, you'll find your abilities far exceed what you had previously thought possible.  Maybe now i've discovered  why most MBA's use TLA's so much; it saves the oh-so-precious time. 

(TLA=Three Letter Acronym)