A few quick reflections on the last 2 weeks, which have been the slowest, most drawn out 10 days and simultaneously whizzed past. I think the theme of the week was summed up best by Libby: “All I do is school”

It’s impressive how quickly the 90 person section comes together. HBS talks nonstop about how instrumental the section experience is to the degree, but it’s hard to describe unless you’re actually in it. Imagine you have 90 work colleagues and you do everything together at all times. I’ve never been bound to this many people at once, but it feels as though I’ve known these people for a lot longer than 3 weeks (in fairness, I’ve known some of them since childhood). I’m already learning more from them and their perspectives than I could have hoped.

One of the best parts of the section experience is that now that we have a baseline understanding of one another (for the most part), we have an opportunity to break out into smaller groups. We had the ability to do this both in an academic setting – storytelling/public speaking practice – and in a small group social setting.

The most intense part of these first two full academic weeks has been the ramp up of the course work coupled with the introduction of clubs and the constant social activities. The triple threat of these things means you can’t do everything at once, so as the cliche goes, time management is everything. We have at least 2 cases to read and analyze every day, time for conversation with smaller groups, plus time for practical learning (FIELD). The practical elements of this course make me reflect on how lucky I was to have experienced many of these things in my own professional life, but I’m grateful to have the opportunity to reflect and learn how to do these things better.

A big highlight was the section handoff, in which the members of “Old F” (last year’s Section F) came and passed along their traditions and their advice. It’s exhilarating to be part of such a deeply rooted (f)amily, and I’m excited to get to know the ECs better.

The clubs piece to me is the most unnatural: in the “real world” we find like-minded individuals in many different ways. Shy of Meetups, there isn’t really an analogous concept. In my limited understanding, it feels like these are going to be the best mechanism to meet other people who share my interests (tech, entrepreneurship, etc) who are outside of my section or current network. The resources seem to be vast.

The thing I haven’t figured out is how to maintain my regular activities while I’m still in school. It’s been very difficult to juggle all of the current academic-related tasks with the tech functions I’d like to attend and the people in this industry in Boston I’d like to meet. I will begin working more on this next week.

Theme of the weekend: rest, and maybe some Netflix and chill.