Durham, Day 14: Le fin du monde

Dinner, pre-embarassing CCMBA story re-telling

What seemed insurmountable 13 months ago in London has come full-circle:  the end of the residency portion of the Cross Continent MBA program.

Last night’s final dinner was a recognition of the end of a huge milestone in the program, and yet, I wouldn’t describe the moment last night as ‘happy’; bittersweet seems to be the word most often written on Facebook.  We’ve still got the distance portion of Semester 6 to go, so the celebration was somewhat muted…if anything, yesterday’s dinner reflected that we’ve run out of time together and the amazing experiences now become stories to be retold at graduation, reunions and the like.

While the dinner food itself was fairly mediocre, I’m sure I’m the only one who probably noticed.  It was clear that last night was going to be the last time to get together for pictures, to have one last talk with a classmate you might never (easily) run into again.  At the same time, it further highlights how far we’ve all come; I’m fairly confident that I’ve got at least one lifetime friend in the major business markets in the world.

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Durham, day before The Day: No work gets done during Hour 15

I’m sure it is no surprise that the prior post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek; having 3 classes this week has been just a little slice of Heaven!  There’s nothing better than going to class from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m., with very minor breaks to switch classrooms and eat lunch.  A little dinner, a case due in Strategy every night, a Valuation here-and-there, and some Investment homework…yeah, that’s not ideal.  Hour 15 as the break-point might be generous, as I passed out Monday (?) reading a case study on my hotel room bed.

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