Tweet

After a pretty neat discussion at Dean Bruner's house about Twitter, I've decided to give it another shot.

I joined Twitter almost two years ago when it first started to gain momentum. It's been pretty interesting to see how the technology has evolved since then, and how much it's been adopted by folks - especially now that you can update from your cellphone, or nearly anywhere. Am fascinated by the short-form communication style.

You'll see my tweets over in the sidebar, where I've just added the widget; otherwise, feel free to follow me in any way you choose - I'm PanicSania.

If you're interested in the twitterings of other Darden folks, check out Dean Bruner, Christof, and Bill.

Every new beginning...

..comes from some other beginning's end.

I just finished my last class of my first year at Darden. Literally, just now.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to feel. I don't think it's sunk in yet, but right now the overwhelming feeling is bittersweet. It's been a long ride, and I am certainly ready to move on to the next step.

But at the same time, I've been enriched in ways I didn't see coming, challenged by things I never expected to face, and I've come out of it better, stronger, and happy to have done it.

More thoughts later; just wanted to capture the moment as it unfolds.

It's True!

Ok, so I too thought Sukanya was insane when she posted about Thomas Jefferson wandering the halls... but it's true!

Picture us wandering around Saunders Hall after classes, avoiding work:

Sukanya: Look, it's him!
Me: Who?
Sukanya: No really... look.
Me: No it's n.. oh dear. Maybe it is.

And then we run around giggling to get a closer look. He's balding in real life.

Yup, just another day at Darden.

Goodness Gracious April

Life is good. The weather has been beautiful, there's a ton to look forward to!

This past weekend, Darden students teamed up with the Building Goodness organization to help fix up houses in the Charlottesville community. It was an incredible effort, coordinated by an amazing group of our classmates and attended by many, many more.



We spent the morning working together to paint, scrape, sweep, dig, hammer, and everything in between. It was both physically and mentally taxing - I left thinking a lot about our responsibility as future leaders to our society. How do we give back to our own families, our communities, and the world?





Oren and Sukanya have gone over the details of the day in a lot more detail, but I'll leave you with one last photo - recognize two of your favorite Darden student bloggers?

Who Me?

A small shout out to my fellow bloggers:

http://www.graduatedegree.org/blog/2009/03/100-best-blogs-for-mba-students/

Paige, Sukanya, Jackie, Angela, Mandy and yours truly were listed on the top 100 bloggers list by the GraduateDegree.org blog. Lots of interesting stuff on there - including a few Darden professors. Check it out!

A Fork Stuck In The Road

I consider Q3 to be my "lost quarter" -- kind of like Japan's lost decade of the '90s. When it came and when it went, I have no idea. I pretty much watched it go by. An out-of-body experience, if you will.

But now, on the cusp of Q4, with the weather getting warmer and being on spring break - I see a new dawn coming. Three-quarters of our first year has passed by, and what had become status quo to us will soon be changing. We've effectively finished up the first year core curriculum of Accounting, Finance, Operations, Marketing, Decision Analysis, Global Economic Markets, and Strategy. There are only two core classes we'll be sharing with our sections (Leading Organizations and Ethics), and the rest is all electives. That means a more flexible schedule and the opportunity to pursue subjects that we're interested in (and avoid the ones we're not - goodbye accounting! It was nice to have met you.)

And yet, I have to admit I'm a little nervous. FY so far has been a cocoon of sorts - keeping us secure in a fixed schedule and familiar faces. They're releasing us into the wild now, and I'm sure the dynamics are going to change. No doubt that there'll be more time to socialize and make more friends, but we're now in charge of our academic destiny. That's disconcerting.

But I'm also looking forward to it, for sure. I can't wait to explore Marketing in more depth; it is my passion, after all. But we also have an array of really exciting electives awaiting us in the second year. And have I mentioned no more accounting? (woohoo!)

Looking forward to see how it all shapes up..

From a silence awakened...

It's the end of Q3 and I feel like I've been in a haze for the past two months. So much has gone on - new sections, new classes, and recruiting success and failure -- mostly failure. And there are more changes to come...

So much to talk about, and now that I've gotten my head back on straight, talk is exactly what I intend to do. Stay tuned; over the next few days, I have quite a few musings to share about Darden and life in general.