Bound For Yale: On The Precipice Of A Two-Year Adventure

rainbow-slinkyI leave in a week.  In a week, I leave. Anticipation: it’s the weight of dread and the levity of excitement.  I’m floating in a pool of anticipation, the forces of trepidation pulling me under while the forces of enthusiasm balloon me ever upward.
It feels like I’m forgetting something, like how I feel before I leave on a big trip and I know I have everything I need (passport, wallet, plane ticket), but I keep worrying – do I have the things I “need” (phone, travel guide, outlet adapter)?
So here I am, on the precipice of a two-year adventure.  I know I have my passport (student registration), wallet (deposit submitted), and plane ticket (loan signed, sealed, delivered). But it feels like I need to be preparing more.

Should I be scouring BusinessWeek and Forbes Magazine for clues to decipher the intricate and opaque world of business?  Should I be memorizing words in my next foreign language, business-ese, like derivatives, synergy, and systematize?  Or should I be pillaging my mind for forgotten stories to share with all these new people over the next few weeks?

If you couldn’t tell, sometimes I overthink things.

I think (there’s that thinking thing again…) I’m having trouble remembering that it’s still possible to get things done while in school.  Somehow, I’ve got it figured that B-school is like being stranded on a deserted island. Obviously this isn’t true, but I am still working myself up believing that I need to accomplish everything before I set out.

Examples:

1) Create a budget with the bf (as if I even know how much stuff even costs in New Haven or what I’ll be spending money on)

2) Hang out with friends before leaving (as if it’s the “last time”)

3) Refine my time management system to reflect the demands of b-school (as though I truly even know what those demands are)
So it goes with the overeager mind.

I know a lot of it just comes from feeling unsettled.  It’s weird being unemployed and homeless. In a few more days I’ll have all but forgotten what I was even worried about.

Sassafras is a 30-year-old MBA applicant who works for a San Francisco-based non-profit organization with a primary focus on youth development and education. With a 730 GMAT and a 3.4 grade point average from a highly ranked liberal arts college, he currently blogs at MBA: My Break Away? His previous posts for Poets&Quants:

A Non-Traditional Candidate Reflects On Why He Wants An MBA

The Round One Days Dwindle Down To A Precious Few

Common Questions From The Helpless, Hapless & Hopeless

The Business School Waiting Game

Cultivating Great Leaders or Great Changers: The Mission of Business Schools

Undoing My Scarcity Paradigm

A Partner’s Perspective On The MBA Application Journey

My Round Two Strategy

Rejection From Stanford–An Acceptance From Yale

An Acceptance From Kellogg Leads To Some Soul Searching

Weighing Kellogg vs. Yale: Which School Would You Choose?

Now Into The Next Stage Of His B-School Path: The Network

Why I’ve Decided To Pass On A Higher Ranked School & Go To Yale

 The Words Behind Those Admission Essay Questions

An Honest Letter To Anxious Round Two Candidates

What Things Can Give An Admissions Committee Doubts About Your Application?

How I Came To Believe I Needed An MBA Degree

Celebrating The One-Year Anniversary Of Taking The GMAT

A Social Enterprise Guy Explains Why He’s Getting An MBA

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