The End is Here

Oh my goodness, it's the last week of school!

Monday we have nothing to prepare for Marketing and I relish in the fact that I can just roll into class without any last-minute scrambling. In Marketing we do our final wrap-up and say our good-byes.  I’ll be honest, I got a little nostalgic.  I’ve been so busy recently that I forgot that this is the last week we’ll have these teachers again.

There is also no pre-work for Economics, which is lovely.

After class I spend the rest of the day at the library (from 1:00pm to 10:00pm) finishing our High Performance Organization paper.

Tuesday I turn in our HPO paper in Human Resources and watch the first batch of presenters. The pressure was on to create a professional, yet creative presentation for the class. Even though the presentation portion of this two-part assignment is not graded everyone puts their best efforts forward.  My favorite presentation of the day: the Whole Foods team.  They did a mock employee training session and news program! They even reference several of our class cases in the 'news cast' and had all of us- professors included, laughing hysterically.

After class that day I make it over to a campus food staple for lunch: Chicken Lou’s.  This greasy spoon diner (or rather, single room) is beloved by students for their plethora of fried sandwiches and deliciously unhealthy fare.  I grab a very tasty chicken sandwich to fuel the rest of my day because, while our HPO paper is complete, our work is not over yet.   My group still faces our presentation tomorrow.  After the exemplary show of effort today the bar has been raised and my group is feeling the pressure to perform.

I meet with my learning team after work and we stay on campus until 8:00pm.

I walk to school on Wednesday with butterflies in my stomach.  For some reason I’m really nervous about our presentation.  However, I think it went well and we even got a few chuckles out of our Jack Black anti-piracy ad campaign that we suggested as one of our solutions to fight piracy in the film industry.

After the presentation we head to our last Information Resources class.  That afternoon our professor releases our take-home final: a 300-word essay based on a case from class and incorporating our entire year of readings.  It will be a miracle if I don’t go over the word limit.

After a quick lunch at Au Bon Pain I head back to campus to finalize paperwork for the Marketing Club holiday party tonight.  I also drop by the bookstore because our pre-work for the spring semester, along with our book list, was released today. Unfortunately, only 2 of the 5 million books I need to buy (I’m only exaggerating slightly) were available.  I grill the bookstore personnel on when the books will be in because I’m leaving for California in 5 days and will be out of the country for 2 of the 3 weeks of break.  If I don’t get the books before I leave, that pre-work for all of my 7 classes is just not getting done.  They tell me they don’t think the books will be in until January; great…I’m in trouble.

Frustrated I head to the Curry Center to send out some reminder e-mails about the party tonight and scour the internet for textbooks because I’m certainly not paying $163.79 for a used copy of The Fundamentals of Finance.  I locate it for $75 on Amazon and have it shipped to California.  But there is still the problem of all of our supplemental course packs, case packs, class packs, etc. Those can only be purchased through the school and if they’re not in stock before I leave I really don’t know what I’ll do.

I send out an e-mail to my consulting project team trying to coordinate a time to conference call with our contact at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.  I reserve a time in the Career Center for us to all meet.

Afterward I rush home to change and get ready for the Marketing Club holiday party.

Graduate Marketing Club Executive Board
Photo courtesy of Alex Shafer

I get to the Curry ballroom at about 6:00pm and start decorating tables, organizing the room, etc.  I help bring in our food and our secretary sets up the holiday tunes.  However, to my disappointment, of the nearly 30 confirmed guests only about 15 turn out.  At least everyone gets an abundance of Maggiano’s leftovers.  

On a positive note, my first grade of the year rolls out and it’s an A- in Economics! I’m very excited.

Thursday is my last class of my first semester: Accounting.  It’s so odd because as we file out at the end of class I begin to head down to work as I normally would.  I suddenly realize I won’t be seeing anyone until after break and spend a few moments exchanging goodbyes. 

After work I head to Elm Bank with a couple members of my consulting team.  Unfortunately of the eight members, only three of us take the trip.  Everyone else canceled.  This seems to be the story of my week.

Regardless, it was great to finally get out to Elm Bank and see what we were working with for our project.  While it boasts beautiful grounds, I take note of the dilapidated main building and generally deserted feel of the place.  I rack my brain trying to see how I’m going to sell this place to potential members.

I spend Friday catching up on sleep and working on my Information Resources final paper which is due at 8:00 tonight.  After hitting send at about 7:30 pm with, admittedly, about 100 words over the limit, I gladly join a couple of friends for a celebratory evening.  We grab some Thai food at Wonder Spice Cafe in Jamaica Plain, rent a movie and relax at home, savoring the fact that we have nothing to do.

Saturday morning I wake up early for an adventure on my first commuter rail out to the Natick Mall to meet friends for lunch at the Nordstrom Café and some light shopping. 

Sunday I spend frantically packing for my trip, pre-paying bills and making sure to take the necessary precautions so that my apartment won’t combust while I’m away.

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern University, it's staff or affiliates.