The World of an M.B.A student….

You know how people (like our Proffs) talk about people who manage stress badly to end up insomniacs by the age of 50? Imagine how it feels to be one at 21,then. :P

Well, I don’t think Im quite an insomniac seeing as how I can unfailingly feel sleepy in some lectures, but when its 2 A.M and I cant sleep, 'coz the list of tasks for the next day is running through my head, I feel like one stressed out manager!! Im sure it happens to the best of us- one of those days when you just can’t seem to get work out of the way (or should I say head). The week just seems to go on, and on... I cant even remember how it started...
The funny part is, what you really want to do, is to just get the work outta da way and enjoy some well-earned hours of chilling-out in your room and forget about the 16-hour day you had on Wednesday, the Presentation you made at 9 P.M last night, and the day-long Forum selections coming up in a days’ time… But then, you have this assignment you haven’t even begun… A class tomo you know you’re going to blink through ‘coz the Operating Cycle using Pipeline inventories so whizzed above your head in the last class… And atleast three other submissions for next week which requires you to be at your analytical best... (It, somehow, is increasingly difficult when your sleep hours diminish slowly, but surely... :P)

Not sleeping can make you a zombie, ye know… Today, there was this hugely amusing episode when the Professor found, much to his astonishment that a large number of his students had slept only 4 hours prior to the morning class time. I was a safe seven hours off, guess my safety net for today has effectively evaporated. :P

I once upon a time, used to convince myself to just ‘Hang in there’ and get the work done with, no matter how inhuman a time it stretched on for. Now, Im not so sure, ‘coz unless we are smart enough, or we were told today- ‘strategic-minded’ enough, we are never going to survive this!! Life moves on, you know… It doesn’t wait- so if you forego that phonecall you want to make to an old friend, or that one hour of sleep you want, or that movie you badly want to see saying ‘Later, once this is over’… you’ll find time doesn’t return for you.. I don’t think this is ‘getting over’!! It’s the beauty of an M.B.A programme: everytime you think you’ll cope with it- the threshold is upped… always… This year’s norm seems last year’s maximum!!

The Life of an M.B.A student, at times like this, is spent convincing oneself, that this is really, truly what one wants!! There really is nothing else that can make one go through this rigour! Its hard…’coz even though all that ‘wanting’ takes you to class on time tomorrow, but its not going to stop your eyes burning tomorrow from lack of sleep, or your feeling a bit blunt, and you mix up which group is for which paper…(O, at which point did I mention we always handle atleast 4 groups at any one point?)

I think a good laugh, helps!! In case anyone offers me a hanky now, (or better: A pillow) :P. let me end with a joke by an IIM student I read somewhere on the web:

‘I know there are a lot of guys out there who’re dying to be in our shoes… Well, we wish you were here too!!’

They get killed in there too, and much worse, I suspect… All good things come at a price, eh?

‘Let’s see this through…This Sunday promises to be fairly free.. Of course: notwithstanding the 3 submissions outstanding… One more day.. Let’s do this, then there's time to sleep… ‘

:) It resumes…

Rajeswari