I'm managing...

I feel really bad that I haven’t written my blog for almost 2 weeks… You’ve heard the excuse before- “I’ve just been too busy keeping up with….” … So hey- let me summarize what I’ve been up to:

I had to take control of my academics after the shock to my system in my first week when I realized that I may not be able to handle 6 courses and maybe taking an E-commerce elective was a mistake. In the end it has not turned out so bad, and my intuition was right in the first place- the busier I am, the more efficient I’ll be- this logic arises in that I feel bored when I'm doing too few things academically, and end up misusing any free academic time, especially when I have those annoying breaks say from 10am-1pm. So a full schedule for me makes good sense. I previously mentioned that Modeling was taking up far too much time- it is now easing a bit, which is a relief and is helping, but I’ve now generally learnt how to best allocate my time to each particular course, and naturally some get more of my time than others! I also cut back on my tennis (but not eliminated it) which has helped.
One of my classmates who runs an amazing microfinance organization in East Africa (which I am thrilled to be invited in joining the board of!) has started taking Swahili course, and today I sat in on this daily lunch time class- it was fascinating- I felt instantly transported to Africa- the full on sunshine and palm trees outside made this easier to imagine (the weather is still amazing!!!) I am thinking of taking the intermediate or advanced level of this class in the Winter quarter- the beginners’ and intermediate class had about 12 and 7 people respectively (the advanced has virtually none). I’m so excited by the prospect of being able to keep up or improve my level of the Swahili language in my two years here. Perfectly in line with my goals for returning to East Africa in the long-term.
It is scary that mid-terms are literally only a few weeks away- the pace of learning is definitely much faster than I could have imagined.
On the clubs front, I actually cut back on the clubs I would have naturally signed up to, instead I focused on the ones that I knew I wanted to be a part of in the two years, and in time I would find out which ones I should REALLY join from classmate feedback and the general buzz around campus. So Wine, Consulting and Africa business club were the ones that I can see committing long-term- I envisage joining Entrepreneurship or Venture Capital later and add others as/if my schedule clears up. I feel relieved that I’m not in the situation that some students are in- having joined lots of clubs, some feel in the position that they have over-committed and having to say “no”- and we know how hard that can be...

I’m looking forward to the Net Impact Conference in November, which should be a treat on a variety of non-profit and socially responsible business topics; it will be the largest conference Stanford has ever hosted, period! Although it’s a little bit on the pricey end- I do think it is worth it for anyone at the business school with a mild interest in careers that make a meaningful impact to society…