TGIF! (non-MBA)

The most exciting part of my day today was looking on the clear admit blog and finally seeing my blog mentioned! I have felt so neglected by those folks at clear admit! I've been doing the MBA blog thing for almost a year now and FINALLY they decide to mention me in the FFF post. Really, it's the little things in life that make me so happy ;-)

In other good news my job just got extended until June. This is such a relief for me! Technically it was supposed to end next Friday. I was having such issues trying to decide what to do since it would be hard for me to accept another job elsewhere knowing I'd (hopefully) be leaving in the fall to start b-school. June is perfect timing too. By then I'll know if/and where I'll be going to school so that I can spend the following two months doing a little traveling. Plus I can get my unit rented out and workout all the kinks with a new tenant while living temporarily with mommy ;-) And by then my two other units leases will be up so I can extend them for another two years or find new tenants while I'm gone so I won't have to worry about it while I'm away.

Or if the school thing doesn't work out at least I'll know by the end of March and I'll have time to make a concerted effort to find that ideal permanent job, or maybe even discuss taking on the position here permanently if that's possible. So many options...but at least now I know I'll be able to pay my mortgage for the next few months ;-) Life is good and it's Friday! Woohoo!

Happy Hallmark Day!

I am not a fan of Valentine's Day, with or without a significant other I think it's...for lack of a better word...LAME! But I am not the most romantic person, nor am I the most emotionally available person so any holiday that I am required to tell people how I "feel" or buy some mushy card saying the "L" word is a nightmare for me. That being said, I have totally indulged in the sweets that come along with the lame holiday. My theory is if I eat the enormous chocolate chip cookie in the break room piecemeal...then it won't count as an enormous cookie! That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

No word from any schools yet. I'm done submitting though and I am considering sitting for the GMAT again next week for good measure. Since I cancelled my scores on my last exam I thought I could use the boost from my god awful scores from my original exam that I took unprepared a while ago. I think Michigan and Georgetown wills till consider the scores if I update them within the next two weeks. UCLA, I'm not so sure about...they claim you have to take the exam prior to Jan. 31st. Anyway, Saturday I'm going too do a quick practice exam, if I do well enough, significantly higher than my current pathetic scores I'm just gonna spend the $250 and be done with it. I don't expect to hear much from the schools until decisions come down since I already voluntarily interviewed with UCLA and Georgetown months ago. UMich I don't think will consider me unless I boost that GMAT score...whatever.


I am so over this B-school thing right now. I am sick of the uncertainty in my life. I just want to know already and be done. Then I can spend the next few months playing and roaming around Central America or something of the sort...

But for now, I spent last weekend in the central coast wine country, visited Hearst Castle, and got to see the elephant seals nursing their babies on the beach nearby...they were adorable! Did some wine tasting too. It was nice to be away and not have an application hanging over my head for once! This weekend I'm going to the SAP Open finals...hoping the good players make it to the finals! Life is starting to seem a little more normal...now if I could get out of my post-marathon slump and get started on my new training program, life would be really good!

Anyway, to those people that enjoy the commercial holiday, Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your b-school dreams come true!

Georgetown

I was impressed and pleasantly surprised! Georgetown did such an amazing job with their all day Women in Business recruiting event! Everyone I met, alumni, current students, prospective students, Adcom, was so nice and the school was so welcoming! At first I was little concerned that I wouldn't last through the entire day long event (10am-5pm!) since we took the red eye out there and arrived in DC at 7am. But the day flew by!

They started out the day with a little organization fair. Most of the clubs and organizations in the business school had tables set up and we roamed around and spoke with different leaders of the clubs. I was able to learn a lot about the student run internship fund for students taking internships at non-profits and I spoke at length with the students running the NET Impact group that I'm interested in participating. I also spoke at length with a girl who is getting a dual degree MPP/MBA and wants to go into non-profit. It was great learning about the programs form someone actually in them.

I can't remember the exact order of things (remember I took a red eye...and didn't sleep a wink on the plane!) but we had an info session type presentation given my two current students. We had the dean (previously the dean of NYU Stern) speak to us. The director of career services and the director of student affairs also gave little presentations. The highlight for me was listening to a professor presentation. She actually gave us signed copies of her recently published book on globalization! I'm really excited to read it!

After a brief walk thru/tour of the campus (which seemed so small to me) we had a really nice catered lunch with a key note speaker, an alum that now works in the higher ups of Sprint/Nextel. All of these presentations were geared towards women and helping women succeed in business school and industry. They were all done very well too!

After lunch there was an all women alumni panel that we had a Q&A session with. They were really nice, very honest, and just so laid back but still articulate and intelligent. I really was super impressed by all of them. Then they had a little cocktail hour with everyone, current students, alum, adcom, etc.

The Cons: To tell you the truth there weren't many! I sort have an issue with attending a Jesuit school but I could easily get over that. The weather was COLD and I am such a wimp in the cold! The program is really new and doesn't have that "brand name MBA" thing that I tend to be snotty about...but again, something I can and will get over. The facilities are not that great (but they are breaking ground on a new building that is scheduled to be done by the spring semester of 2008)

The Pros: I loved DC (minus the cold). The political opportunities abound! A very good public policy program for me to consider. The people truly were amazing. I do think since they are trying to build the program and they don't have a name for themselves yet that they stress the academics and truly want to make you successful in order for them to climb up those ranking charts. If the new building is actually finished on time there's going to be great facilities in a perfect location!

Now it's just a matter of submitting the application and waiting...again!

In other news, I gave my first sit down television interview yesterday for work. I've done short news interviews that turn into 10 second blurbs on TV. And I've been interviewed by newspaper journalists before. But this interview was 30 minutes. I was incredibly nervous but I managed to hold myself together and I was pretty proud of the result! The program is going to be aired next week. It's just a local program but it was awesome to have a platform to talk about teen pregnancy and what we are doing to combat it and the services we offer at our clinics. It was pretty exciting for me...I never in a million years would have thought I, the dorky, technical, mechanical engineer, would be sitting in a suit on a program discussing teen pregnancy! It was exciting!

Officially Denied

So this process thus far has been quite a blow to my ego. I am a little arrogant I suppose. But up until now I don't think I've ever been denied something I've wanted? Looking back part of me thinks some of this was a little self destructive. Knowing how competitive Stanford and some of the other schools are, I may have purposely done a pretty crappy job on my applications thinking that I would then have a reason for being denied? I could blame it on my lack of effort throughout the process. I don't know. Anyway, I knew long ago that Stanford was a long shot regardless if I put in my best or worst effort. Just seems such a waste of money to be denied. C'est la vie.

In other news I leave tonight on the red eye to Washington D.C. for the event at Georgetown's B-school tomorrow. I hope I like it. My friend has made a list of tourist attractions that we will be seeing while we're there. I'm most excited about the White House and the Capital Building. Policy in motion! And I get to see it! I am a geek deep down inside.

I was surprised to see how many marathoners there are applying to business school! That's exciting! Hopefully I'll end up at a school with a few so I'll have some training partners! What's even more amazing is that I'm not even sore anymore. Seriously I was a little stiff for about 2 days and that's it! Which of course leads me to believe that I definitley did not run as hard and as fast as I could have. There's always Marathon #4!

Good luck to all those admits and all those still waiting and still applying!

Marathon #3

So in the midst of my application stress I decided I wanted to run another marathon. Eventually I plan on qualifying for the Boston marathon but I didn't train hard enough this time around for that. In fact I really didn't train much at all. But luckily it was a flat course and I've been feeling pretty good lately. I beat my last time by 15 minutes. So if I keep that up for my next marathon, which I think will be in San Diego, CA in June, then I should have no problem qualifying for Boston. But for now I have the pain of my knees, hips, and joints to keep my mind off the fact that Yale rejected me and Stanford is bound to do the same any day now. But how many of their b-school students can say they have run 26.2 miles on three different occassions! Damn, I thought maybe that would make me feel better, but alas it did nothing...sigh.

I am going to Washington DC to the Georgetown event to recruit women into their business school. I've never been to DC so I thought this would be a great excuse to go. I'm headed out on the red eye Thursday night and Friday will spend all day at Georgetown. Then Saturday and Sunday my friend, who is coming with me, and I will tour all the sites we possibly can squeeze in to 48 hours! I'm looking forward to it! And please let me like Georgetown because at this point, I fear it may be my only possible acceptance...

UCLA Submitted

I just submitted UCLA. Talk about last minute. I am awful at that! I just have such a hard time writing about myself intelligibly. I was at a friends house late last night while his mother helped me edit my essay to make it sound better. I absolutely hated writing about my family. I am not the greatest communicator when it comes to my personal life. At work I am great, I can make very clear my intentions and thoughts in the office but when it comes to any personal emotion or feeling I freeze up. Believe, this has been an issue with all of my boyfriends in the past. Anyway, it's done. Out of my hands now.

Yale released some decisions before X-Mas and has just said they will release more decisions this week. Wouldn't it be awesome to just get that phone call today. I am already imagining jumping up and down in my office just being happy to have the anxiety over with! Previously I thought I'd be a shoe in at Yale, but I'm not so confident anymore. They're applicant pool has doubled in size. At this point, I'll just be happy to be admitted anywhere. I just really want to know what I'll be doing with my life for the next two years, where I'll be, how I'll manage. I hate this uneasiness of not knowing. I am positive I am not the only one. Can we all just throw ourselves a little pity party (those of us who have not been lucky enough to hear word on our fates yet)?!

Good luck to everyone and I hope you all had an awesome time bringing in 2007!

Losing Faith...

I have finally stopped checking my status page every 5 minutes. However, I check my email every 10 minutes still. But I am losing faith in the Stanford interview. According to the B-Week forums and apparently admissions411, a lot of invitations have already gone out. And I have not received one. I think Stanford was a dream school for me by far but I still had some hope, thinking I wasn't the typical applicant and my demographic is quite different. But my numbers aren't there. I haven't lost complete hope just yet but I'm getting there.

The only benefit to this is that now I'm motivated to work harder on my Ross, UCLA, and Stern applications.

BW Forums Killing Me!

I was never really one to check the b-week forums but recently, due to lack of anything else to check on, I've read some of the posts and the anxiety that it gives me is unbelievable! I am trying not to go back. People take a chill pill! You have no control and knowing what someone else's stats and location is isn't going to get you that ever elusive inteview invite! Seriously, go for a run, a bike ride, a hike, watch a movie...do something! Just step away from the computer! Whooo...Now that I got that out of my system I feel much better. Good luck to all those still waiting...

Finally! Progress!

My application is submitted and complete. I am now officially "Under Review" by Stanford! Woohoo! Although the relief was short lived. Now I am back to anxiety. I have had my fingers permanently crossed since I submitted the application. I may have to have them surgically uncrossed once all of this is over :-)

Stanford Update

So about 15 minutes after I posted my last post I got an email from Stanford saying that my transcripts were missing! I uploaded them per their instructions though! I nearly had a heart attack. I left work in a whirlwind, ran home, found my unofficial transcript and faxed it over immediately with a letter of apology. I have no idea what happened there but now I'm so upset about it. Stanford has so many competitive applications to look at and now mine is going to be less desirable because it looks like I don't know how to follow simple directions. I hope this happens frequently and I don't look like a complete moron. Stanford is my dream school and I pray to God this won't effect my candidacy. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed from now until mid January in hopes that I'm accepted. I wonder if that will help my candidacy?!

What the heck?

What is going on with Stanford? Does anyone know how their review process goes? Do they give any updates on an applicant's status page? I suppose I could ask their adcom about it but I don't want to be the pestering type so I thought I'd ask here first.

I am having a phone conversation with a UMich (Ross) alum this week. He is a local guy. I'm looking forward to getting a feel of Ross' alumni. I've decided that out of all the schools I want to go to I am assured a great education at all of them. The most important part is whether or not I can see myself working as a team with the students at a particular school. I guess I'm trying to judge that ever elusive "fit" with a particular school.

My current job has extended my stay through January. By then I'll at least know about Stanford and Yale. If I'm lucky and I'm admitted to one of those then I may just play around until school starts. Maybe Mexico, back to Chile, or possibly Central America. I've always wanted to hang out in Costa Rica. So now I'm dreaming a little but what is life without dreams??! Boring!

I've also finally gotten back on track with the running. I'm going on 4 days in a row with the running. My wonderful friend fixed up my road bike the other day so I can start riding to work now. Hopefully this will all be very helpful for my marathon in January. It really is nice feeling human again. I was running on adrenaline for so long. I actually had time to read last night! Ahhh life is good again :-)

We Won!

The election is over and I have finally had a chance to sleep and I can almost see straight again! Woohoo! We won and we won big! For the moment, a woman's right to choose is safe and I feel like I had a hand in making that happen. What a great feeling! I've never worked so hard, so long, and for SOOOOO little $money$ before in my life. But I've never been happier. I have to say, it is a bit humbling to be a bottom feeder again. I mean I had responsibilities and all but I definitely was not the one making big ticket decisions. Going from leading a $10 million defense contract to sending out invitations for a board member's house party is VERY humbling. And as much as I loved what I was doing, I'm not so sure my ego could take much more. That's why I'm glad I'm going to grad school...I'm hoping that will allow me to start a bit higher on the food chain in this industry.

I'm not sure what happens now. I was hired on just for the campaign so officially my job ends next week but my manager is trying to get me hired on for at least another couple of months. I also had my last engineering consultant job contact me and see if I was interested in consulting on a new project for them. They apologized over the last incident (long story) and promised I wouldn't have to work for the same guy again. I'm not sure if I want to go back to engineering again but the money is so good it's hard to pass it up especially knowing that I'm going to be making nothing and spending $120k over the next two years at grad school. But we'll see what happens here. Maybe I can work part time at both jobs until I hear back from all the schools. Once I am confident that I'm accepted to at least one of the schools, I may take off to Chile to hang with my compadres over there for a couple of months. I don't know...something will come my way and I'll figure it out.

In other, actual MBA,news, there was FINALLY a change on my status page for Yale, they put my GMAT score with my application. Still waiting on them to match up my transcripts with my application. I can't believe they haven't even put together my application and others are already interviewing? It was making me nervous before but I guess they just start reviewing apps and sending out interview invites immediately? Should I be nervous? And Stanford, there has been no change on my application status page. Does anyone know what goes on there?

This weekend I will finish my UCLA application and submit that, long before the second round deadline. Then I'll start on UMich (Ross). I'm still deciding between NYU and Columbia or both? Enough of my ramblings. Good luck on the interview invites people!

Last Minute Submit

Two down, three to go. I submitted Yale at about 4 this morning and I just submitted Stanford. I think I gave both schools a very honest and open idea of myself and made clear my goals. I'm not all that hopeful. I went to Stanford recently to have Lunch with a current student and she reiterated how amazing all of her classmates and ridiculous examples. I am not nearly as accomplished as these people are. I'm just a regular girl with a really strong passion for changing the world. I hope that is enough. But I have my doubts.

Now I am going to stop thinking about B-school for the next two weeks. Now I am just going to stress about work and the election. If I make it to Nov. 8th still standing I'll be happy.

I am looking forward to my UCLA and my UMich apps. Not sure what the final app will be or if there may be more than three? I was talking to my cousin and she was making some good points for applying to more schools. We'll see. Good luck to everyone, those round one deadlines are here!

Tic Toc Tic Toc

Time is of the essence in my life right now. Not only is the Stanford application due in just a couple of days but the election is just a measly 2 weeks away. I haven't slept in weeks. Working really late hours (until 10pm!) and on weekends. I am nervous about my Stanford application since I've been so busy with work and the campaign. But I am determined to hit submit before the 1st round deadline. I refuse to hold off until 2nd round. I'm actually having lunch with a current GSB student next week. I'm looking forward to that. Maybe they'll have some words of wisdom for me.

All of this stress has made me gain 5 pounds! I'm not happy about that at all! I've only been running roughly 3 days a week. That's not good. I feel slow and sluggish. It's just that I can't seem to get up early enough to get out for my run because I'm getting to bed so late. I figure after Nov. 7th life will get back to normal. Regardless, I did find time to do a quick half marathon a week or so ago and I managed to kick my best friend's a$$ by 12 minutes! Neither of us trained for the run but he has been stagnant the past two months so he was totally unprepared. But that didn't stop him from talking smack weeks before the run and saying how he was still going to kick my butt. Ahh...victory is so sweet, but a 12 minute victory is heaven! I'll be holding this over his head until our marathon in January when I suspect he'll probably kick my butt. But that won't stop me from talking smack up until that day :-) Beating him so badly did a little job on that fragile male ego of his so this time around he is inspired to get off his booty and start training. At least I know I got him back on the horse and that was my intention.

OK I am procrastinating. I've read and reread my Stanford essays so many times they are making me dizzy.

Good luck to everyone!

Stanford and UCLA

So much has been going on the past couple of weeks. I feel like I have been saying that for months? Anyway, work really is crazy. I’ve been working 6 days a week about 10-12 hours a day. I seriously have never worked this hard for so little $$ before in my life. And although it irks me at times when I wander through Neiman Marcus (which I try to avoid like the plague these days) it really doesn’t bother me much at all. I feel good about it. It’s really amazing and it’s hard to explain that to my family and my best friend where money is so much more of a priority. Oh well. It’s my life and my happiness so they need to get over it.

Anyway, I sat in on a class at Stanford a little while ago. It was awesome. The class was mostly second year students. It was the standard b-school U shaped classroom. Pretty full class, I’d guess about 50 or 60 students maybe? The class was on Power and apparently it’s a very popular elective. The professor was great. The entire class was very conversational and almost every student had something pretty insightful to add to the conversation. I had warm fuzzies the entire time I sat there thinking how I desperately want to be one of those students. It was awesome. There was one other prospective sitting in on the class too. We had been picked up by a second year host to take us to the class. The host seemed a bit frazzled and wasn’t the most friendly host in the world but I won’t hold it against him/her. I imagine since classes just started he/she was a bit overwhelmed. But regardless there was something very intimate feeling about the visit and I am seriously in love with Stanford. I am trying so hard to put together an amazing application so they can’t refuse me!

I also went down to Los Angeles for a day to visit Anderson, sit in on a class, an info session and an interview. I hadn’t been on UCLA’s campus since I graduated and it was great to be there. I had completely forgotten how stunning that campus is. It really is such a beautiful campus. I don’t think I really appreciated it when I did my undergrad there. The weather was typical LA weather, sunny and perfect. The traffic was typical LA traffic, unbelievably obnoxious and irritating. It took me over an hour to get to campus from LAX and I had to take a cab because the morons at Super Shuttle were too late to pick me up and couldn’t promise me that they could get me there in an hour and a half after I waited 20 minutes for the damn shuttle!

Anyway, the visit was alright. I was exhausted from the get go so I don’t think I got as much from the visit as I could have. I had an interview with an associate director of admissions. I have no idea how it went. They really are intent on not giving you any feedback or maybe it was just that the interview didn’t go well? Who knows? After the interview I sat in the café that I used to study at to escape South campus (the engineering side of campus) and had a coffee and read the Daily Bruin. Then I sat in on a marketing management class. The class was interesting enough. It held my attention the entire hour and a half. The students, I won’t hold it against them since it was their first week of classes, weren’t as insightful or as articulate as the students at Stanford. But again this was a first year class with students just starting out on their mba journey so it’s hard to make a comparison. The class was a lot less conversational as well. But I did enjoy the class, minus my splitting headache. (I had a bit of a mountain biking accident about 2 days before my visit and was covered in bruises and scrapes and had two big bumps on my head, it wasn’t pretty). Then I hung around wandered a bit and sat in on an hour and a half long info session that was more of what I already knew so that wasn’t all that helpful but the person I interviewed with was leading the presentation so it was good that I attended the session.

So that is my long winded update. I’m still hoping to get UCLA, Yale, and Stanford apps done in first round then I’ll decide what 2 schools I’ll be applying to in the second round.

Letters

Hello Blogosphere-

I just wrote a long a$$ post that just disappeared into cyberspace. I'm so annoyed. Anyway, the point of it was that I am super busy at work and am loving it! I have asked my previous manager and my current manager for my letters of rec and both were happy to do it. They were very encouraging too! My essays are coming along...not as great as I would like yet but alright I suppose.

So that is my update. I really had a lot to say with details...maybe I'll update this again later tonight when I have more time.

Ciao!

An Epiphany!

Last night as I was sitting at a coffee shop working on Stanford essay A, I finally found my theme! After reading the myriads of blogs discussing their "theme" and their "story" I was getting a bit frustrated trying to think of my own. I kept getting off on so many tangents. I was convinced that my life couldn't be boiled down to a simple "story" with a "theme" that can be told in a just a couple of essays! But alas, last night I found my own theme! I found a recurring theme on all of the important and even not so important decisions I have made throughout my life. It was so clear to me. I think I may have shouted "Yippee" at the coffee shop because when I looked up from my computer I had the entire coffee shop staring at me. Oops :-)

So now that I have found my theme/story it's just a matter of writing it in a clear, concise, yet interesting manner. Let's hope this part doesn't take as long as the first part!

As I was having trouble with my essays I would go back and forth with the Stanford application. I find the actual application almost as difficult as the essays. For the life of me I can't remember the names of the organizations I used to volunteer at while in university. I guess that is a sign that they weren't that significant. But I was working almost a full time schedule (had to pay for school on my own, minus some scholarships and loans of course) while getting a degree in engineering full time as well so my time was quite limited. But I know I volunteered every once in a while when I found myself with a few spare hours. I know I tutored at an elementary school for a quarter once a week. I also volunteered with a rape prevention group too. I just don't know the details of the organizations. So do I leave those out of my list of activities? I'm going to do a class visit at Stanford in the near future so maybe I'll ask the student or maybe I'll have some contact with an adcom person.

In other news, if you hadn't noticed my list of schools has grown. I am no longer sure about NYU or Columbia but I have added UCLA and Ross to my application list for sure. I've scheduled an info session, class visit, and interview at UCLA that is coming up soon. I'm a bit nervous about the interview. I'm planning on working on my resume the next few days and refining my answers to some standard interview questions. I think I need to make my answers a little more brief (or is that briefer? Maybe this is why I did so bad on my GMAT!...uggghh that's another problem I'm going to have to deal with soon...yuck!).

Enough of this procrastinating...now that I actually have a theme to write about I better get to it!

The MBA Tour and Interviews

I attended the MBA Tour this past weekend in San Francisco. I took this opportunity to interview with a few schools (thanks to Marina), some of which I was interested and some of which I was not. So the tour itself was alright. I think for me it was definitely worth it because it was only one day and an hour drive. I think if it took any more effort than that I wouldn't necessarily think it was worth it. The benefits of the tour were...Ross (Univ of Mich.), Anderson (UCLA), Columbia, Chicago GSB, back up schools, and interviews.

I had not considered Ross because I have no desire to live in Ann Arbor and so I didn't even research Ross. But for some reason I decided to sit in on the 35 minute Ross presentation. I was intrigued because the presentation stressed their non-profit management program, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. They just made it seem that the school's values matched mine. I still need to look further into the school but they have a great dual degree program that I've been considering (MBA/MPP). So now I think I may be applying there too.

I had not considered UCLA because I went to undergrad at UCLA and I really felt like been there done that. But I, again, was swayed by the 35 minute presentation. More research to be done. In the meantime, I signed up to interview while I'm there on business in a few weeks.

I was convinced I wanted to go to Columbia because it's Columbia and it's in New York and from the website I thought it'd be a good fit for me. Now I'm questioning that after sitting in on their 35 minute presentation. I definitely am going to postpone that application until the second round if I still decide I want to apply there.

I wasn't really sure about Chicago GSB. I thought about it but I was not into living in Chicago. Turns out I was right questioning Chicago. After the presentation I was sure that Chicago GSB was not a good fit for me.

The other benefit to the MBA Tour was that I saw a couple of my back up schools there. I kept going back and forth on whether or not to apply to my back up schools. I am now completely convinced it is not worth going to a back up school or wasting the time, effort and money to apply.

Practice interviews are a great idea. I know now that I really need to be better prepared for them. I tend to chatter a little too much when nervous. There are benefits to this because they don't seem to have enough time to ask me the hard questions? There is a lot more I could add to this but I'm tired and have to clean my house. Maybe at a later date...

Blog Crushes

So as I sit here and try really hard to focus on what matters most to me (thank you Stanford Adcom) I procrastinate. I read blogs. I read and read and read more blogs and blogs and blogs. And as I read these well written blogs about incredibly successful and bright people I realize I have some major blog crushes! There's something about well written introspection that is so attractive! I have great respect and admiration for the women bloggers out there as well...it's just not as fun daydreaming about them (such is life). Am I the only one that falls for these writers? Is it a little sad and possibly slightly pathetic? Good thing no one out there will know who I am :-)

Back to the essays I go. Tomorrow morning I am asserting myself as the official Regional Campaign Coordinator and trying to forge a coalition between our camp and another local progressive camp. I hope it goes well! I'm kind of liking this public speaking part of the job. I never knew it could be so fun with so much improvisation...engineering presentations weren't nearly as exciting. Good night all!

14 Miles from Civilization

I'm home from Yosemite and all I can think about is when I can go back. There's something to be said for being completely and totally inaccessible to anyone or anything and surrounded by nature...redwoods, mountains, fresh water streams, glaciers, lakes, wildflowers, and just plain old silence. It definitely helps to keep things in perspective. What's strange about being 14 miles away form civilization into the mountains and over 10,000ft above sea level is the people that you run into. We met a human rights activist on his way to Harvard law school to be a Human rights attorney, a guy that was building houses for habitat for humanity, a lady that was a social worker, another lady that worked on health care policy for MediCal recipients, a bunch of guys that work for the U.S. Forestry Service with the desire to keep these forests pristine and untouched by bulldozers. It was odd meeting so many "do-gooders" there. I think I've been a bit jaded being in the Silicon Valley surrounded by so many people who are here just to make money for themselves. It was nice to see so many people that were concerned about others or the environment or whatever cause they happened to be proponents of. I did however learn how to answer the question of "what do you do?". I m officially in transition! That's my answer and I'm sticking with it until I'm going to classes at Stanford or Columbia or wherever my essays may take me.

As of tomorrow, I am officially employed and working as a campaign assistant for Planned Parenthood. It's temporary, only until November. It's a pretty big undertaking for me. The hours promise to be long, the nights late and the weekends full of activity. I'm not sure I could keep that up any longer than November. I'm a little nervous considering all of this is happening alongside of me turning in at least three of my 5 applications for b-school. But I think it's worth it for the experience and for me to determine if this is really the route I want to go.

I have decided that I will apply to Stanford, Yale, and Columbia in the first round and second round I will apply to two more schools that I haven't quite decided on yet.

I've officially started on Stanford's essay A. I have about one sentence down and I'm guessing another 200 to go???? This is tough. What matters most to me and why? I know the answer but how do I relate that to career, life decisions and how do I write 3-4 pages on it? This promises to be a very good writing exercise for me as I absolutely suck at communicating my ideas verbally much less on paper! It is sort of weird though after coming back from my trip...there's part of me that's looking forward to this essay.