Day 92: Straight back down to earth... *bump*

After a fantastic weekend in Hong Kong catching up with some of my favourite people, it's straight back to the real world with homework and projects and deadlines. The week ahead looks to be a pretty crazy and demanding week and I am not quite sure where I am going to find the time to finish the work/errands that need to be done. I can never really tell if I've been re-energised by the weekend or been completely exhausted by it. The crazy thing is that it's probably a bit of both. Re-energised mentally but exhausted physically!

It's Africa Week this week (we celebrate a WHOLE continent this time!) and our African classmates have done an amazing job of lining up a whole series of events for the week despite a pretty small organising team. (Kudos!) I am personally looking forward to the Braai and Wine Tasting on Wednesday evening but will need to pace myself overall so I do not run myself into the ground this week with all the activity that is taking place!

The Entrepreneurship Boot Camp is taking place this weekend and I have had to front load the work this week so that I will not have too much of it hanging over my head while I am at this camp. I am looking forward to it as there have been generally pretty good reviews about it from past participants. Unfortunately, a couple of people have pulled out at the last minute due to various reasons as usually is the case for most events. The one thing I have learnt is that even if you do not book a place at an event by the deadline/before it is sold out, there are often people looking to offload their tickets closer to the date if you are still interested to go. There's always so much going on that trade-offs have to be made.

As my class approaches the home stretch of the period, the class above us (10'D) are slowly approaching their own finishing line and the last few days of their own amazing year. Most of them do not really have too many classes at this point in time and appear to already be in the holiday mode.

The main thing I have heard from them is that they feel that things just happen so fast. Before you know it you are already in P5. I wonder what else they might say, what else they might have done differently if they could do it all over again. I have seen surveys online that invite them to leave their thoughts and comments. Hopefully some of this wisdom can be shared with the current batch (and the batch coming in January!). I really believe that there is so much that we can learn from each other, if only we are willing to share the unique knowledge and opinions inside of us. Who knows?

Something you take for granted may just be the lifesaver that someone else needs.

(INSEAD Cafe)
Are these 11J's? They don't even look 11!

Day 90: Waaay outside the bubble

In HK this weekend catching up with friends from waaay outside "the bubble". I always have a great time largely due to the amazing people that I know here. They are a collection of some of my favourite people and the one thing we all have in common is a love for finding and sharing good food. HK for me just wouldn't be the same without them. 

Doesn't hurt that the weather here now is just gorgeous. Warm without being hot. Cool without being cold and just glorious in the sunshine. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Hong Kong

 While this is the weather back in SGP. Much hotter and more humid but at least sunny.

Singapore

Alternatively, here's the weather for FBL. I'm glad I'm not there right now. ;)

Fontainebleau

Some of my classmates are actually also in town and I'm sure I'll bump into them at some point this evening especially since everyone's up for a night out on the town. Need a little nap now. I gotta feelin'... that tonight's gonna be a good night (and potentially late one). Heh.

Day 88: Peculiar conditions?

Walking the corridors here at INSEAD, you get the sense that there are 2 peculiar conditions currently afflicting my current class. The first is a physical one and the second is a philosophical one that might indirectly contribute to the first one.

The first condition I am talking about here is the newly dubbed "INSEAD cough". Seems like after a couple of months in, people start developing a cough that does not go away that easily. I know a classmate of mine who has been afflicted by it for the past 3 weeks and still gets coughing fits from time to time. He has already seen a doctor but it still refuses to go away even after a course of antibiotics. Probably doesn't help that all of us are often in close contact with each other due to classes, other activities or the fact that ~90% of the students here live within the INSEAD "bubble" that consists of the triangle between Heritage, Dover and INSEAD. Quite an ideal environment for a cough to spread really.

The second condition is one that some of my classmates have talked about before and it is called "FOMO" (Fear Of Missing Out). This is essentially a condition where you sign up for everything that sounds interesting only to find out that you're triple booked just about every evening this week. There really are sooo many things happening on and off campus on any given night of the week.

Take today for example. I could have:

• learnt how to make temaki sushi at someone's apartment
• gone to a classmate's birthday drinks
• participated in the Healthcare Club's networking drinks with alumni
• attended a meeting of the Entrepreneurship Club
• have Thanksgiving dinner with my college alumni (I chose this option because I had committed to it earliest)

There were probably other events that were happening that I was not even aware of! The temptation is to try to go for all of them even though it's physically impossible to be in multiple places at the same time. If you try to run around from event to event to event, you just end up running yourself into the ground and hence perhaps the INSEAD cough. As it is, people are looking pretty tired and burnt out at the moment, possibly also because the workload seems to be ramping up too.

The programme really is a massive exercise in prioritisation if you ask me. There are so many "required" readings to do that you have to figure out which are key and which you can afford to skip if you want to maintain your sanity and any form of social life. The same with your social life too though. There are so many groups doing different things that you just have to figure out what you are really interested in and stick to it. All this comes back to the theory of the MBA triangle matrix mentioned previously.

It is inevitable that you will have to sacrifice something along the way or prioritise one thing over others. The sooner you come to terms with that, the more at peace you'll be.