Thirty Days
What can change in thirty days?
Really what could be so different about a person in thirty days?
Let me tell you I’ve never felt more like myself. I’ve feelt like a fish out of water for the last 20 years of my life. Something was always off, maybe it was the time, the people, my surroundings.
For the first time in 20 years, I feel like I’ve returned to the sea (figuratively and literally). I’m in the classroom after 12 years of working in a plethora of industries in New York and Miami. While life has been my greatest teacher, my professors at EDHEC, are pretty incredible too.
In the last thirty days they’ve been able to jumpstart this old 3.8 liter twin-turbocharged flat-six engine. It now takes me less time and effort to rev each early morning.
I’ve learned to read the storylines that Income Statement tell by glossing over businesses annual reports to check if management has made wise choices and kept to their strategic plan. I’ve learned that every part of a business can be an asset dependent on how it’s leveraged. I can now quantify the operational performance of a candy shop just as easily as that of Oracle.
I learned to introduce myself as a student—oh how humbling it has been to loose the status of a title a big brand and the weight and reputation it carries.
Humbling have been the experiences of catching the bus just as the doors were closing to realize it’s going in the opposite direction you intended.
Humbling have been the experiences of realizing you are so much more sarcastic, witty, and poised in your mother tongue than in English.
Humbling have been the experiences of going to the market on Sunday morning in preparation to host guests for lunch the same day, only to learn that the grocery store doesn’t open on Sundays.
A lot has changed in thirty days. I’ve made over forty new friends from far corners of the world I’ve yet to explore. They serve as ambassadors of their culture and country. We now share experiences without the limitations of borders or judgement. Each one of us walking away enriched by the other’s knowledge and experience.
Thirty days ago, I sat at my desk in a high rise, historic building in New York City, in a country my parents had to migrate to over 30 years ago because of the promise of opportunities for their daughters. I was 33 years old and unsure what I had just signed up for by agreeing to attend EDHECs Global MBA program, but I had a feeling this would be just what I needed.
Thirty days later I am sitting at the edge of campus watching the sunrise over the Mediterranean in a low-rise modern building in Nice, in France a country I choose to migrate to because of the human rights it upholds and the promise of opportunity. I am 34 years old and confident this is the best decision I’ve ever made in my life!