Spring Forward

The first day of spring in Boston meant we were greeted with...a snowstorm.  Aah, New England.  The snow has melted away already though and I can spot daffodils and crocus sprouting up here and there as I make my way to the T each morning before work.  I find my spirits lifting as the days grow slightly longer and I'm eagerly, happily looking forward to the season ahead.  (Really, is there anything better after a dreary winter than an early spring day?) 

February was a tough month for me.  Work travel nearly did me in and my school load was the toughest it has been to date.  There were times when I had no idea how I would be able to keep going, no clue how I'd survive from one week to the next.  I tried not to complain, I worked hard to just stay focused, sometimes just reminding myself that I needed to keep going, to put one foot in front of the other.  Do you know how I made it through without completely losing my marbles?  My friends.  My family.  You lovely readers who left encouraging comments here for me to find.  Thank you. 

They say no man is an island but sometimes I forget that - usually right when I need to hear it most.  What got me through this round especially was just hearing that people believed in me, that they knew I could do it, that they were thinking of me.  One of my teammates and I have gotten into the habit of debriefing - just the two of us - on the phone right after our group team calls.  He and I usually start with a quick run down of what just went down in our team meeting but quickly segue into talking about our lives, how we're doing, what's new, what's good, what's bad.  That helps.  That always helps.  Talking to people helps. All too often it's so easy to get caught up in our own hectic and stressful schedules that you suddenly think you don't have time to connect...but oh, isn't that the time when we need it the most?

Operations, the class that was the bane of my existence this semester, is now behind me, completed.  Thank the business school stars.  Last weekend we started our new round of classes which will carry us through until mid-May when we will have amazingly finished our first year of the program.  

But wait, slow down, school. I'm not ready for you to be flying past me as quickly as you are.

When our Operations professor said goodbye to our class on the Sunday of our final, he stood in front of us and asked if he'd told us about the fancy car in Scarsdale.  We looked at him quizzically wondering if this was a homework problem we'd missed.  "You're all in a hurry to be finished with Ops, I know." he said.  "And you think to yourself, I'll be happy when I just get this damn class done with."  We laughed and nodded.  He continued. "But then you get into your next set of classes and you do the same thing.  You tell yourself you just gotta get through this and then you'll be happy.  And then you tell yourself that next year too.  Just get the MBA and then I'll be happy.  Then it's just get the fancy job.  And then it's just get the nice house in Scarsdale and I'll be happy.  Then it becomes just get the sports car and then you'll finally be happy.  But do you know where that leaves you?  Dead.  With a nice car and a nice house in Scarsdale."

Our class was quiet.  "My point," he said, "is that you've got to enjoy the ride that gets you there.  What else is there otherwise?"

The days are long but the years are short.  I have heard that phrase so many times in my life, I have long tried to heed it's warning.  Ironically it took an Operations class (that I hated!) to remind me of the part that matters. 

This most recent weekend, I took a lot of pictures.  I mingled even more with my fellow classmates than I normally do.  I took more pictures.  We shared some already formed memories, we shared a lot of laughs.  March is being kinder to me than February was, and for that I'm grateful.  But in a weird way I'm also thankful for the beast that was February.  She reminded me of a few very important lessons that I'd temporarily forgotten.