First Week Check!

Today marked the end of my first official week with LGO.  It's been such a week of reflection and goal development.  It's so fitting since it's also MIT graduation week.  I got to look back at the past few years and thought about what have changed, moved forward, or stayed the same.

What have changed is my view of success.  I read Drew Houston's Commencement address after classes ended today and completely agreed of his statement:

"For your first couple decades, success in life has meant jumping through one hoop after another: get these test scores, get into this college. Take these classes, get this degree. Get into this prestigious institution so you can get into the next prestigious institution. All of that ends today."

I had struggled a bit at first when I left school.  There was no longer a big milestone.  Luckily, I found my way to move forward  quite quickly just like Drew said:

"Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure, and go ever upward."

From all the risk taking opportunities stretching me beyond my comfort zone at work allowing me to manage a big upgrade to my hangouts with friends and from my first trip to Africa to my first half-marathon, I grow and learn more about myself everyday.

It also feels nice to know that some things are constant: my love for my family, my loyalty to my friends, and my values of respect and constant learning.

Getting to know my new classmates this week, I realized that these next 2 years will be so transformative for me as a person.  I'm glad to be feeling the sense of going upward and trust as I think about my classmates now; it feels adventurous yet comforting.

Karl sent out a list of "Verbatim," a collection of amusing (usually out of context) quotations earlier this afternoon, and the very first one was the following:

At Outward Bound:
Ploy: guys where do I climb from here?
Dave the instructor lookup at Ploy: OMG, where did you get these calves?! They are gigantic."

I thought it fits with what I'm feeling exactly.  I'm stretched beyond my comfort zone but open to help and embracing of comments.

Ammar (my teammate) captured a lot of pictures from this week which can be viewed on his blog: http://likethegreatoz.blogspot.com/2013/06/up-up-up.html

Oh, and here's my team 8 (my team for the summer and pretty much everything LGO):

 I know, they are all about the same height...but me.

On a different note, I am amazed that with all the LGO things that happened this week, I still had time to catch up with my non-LGO friends.

Julia and I did bootcamp on Tuesday and Wednesday:

Matt cooked steak and beer for me as I helped his bride-to-be try on her wedding dress (I'm the maid of honor!)

Liz and I helped Eve get ready for her 10K that's coming up in a couple of weeks.  Eve accidentally locked her car keys in the trunk.  Liz drove us to get Eve's spare keys, so we were able to unlock the car.  However, we still couldn't open the trunk from the car because the switch to open it was broken and Eve had run over the key to the trunk so it was bent.  We read the manual, searched Youtube on how to open it from the back car seat, and started pulling the back seat forcefully.  Finally, we tried using the bent key carefully, which worked! It was an adventure to say the least :)

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better transition week from work to school.  I look forward to creating new adventures and  maintaining current relationships.  Now I must get ready for an MIT10 reception at MIT Museum before I head to a get-together with LGOs later on tonight.  I'm out.