Wrapping Up and Starting All Over

I wanted to write something today saying that I look forward to meeting the prospective members of the class of 2015 who are now one step closer to acceptance!  Word has gotten around that interview invites are out and so I wish to share in the excitement of those of you who received an interview invitation via email and say that to those of you who did not make it this year, life has a strange way of working itself out.  One of the things that helped me find that LGO even existed was getting laid off, so you never know what will come your way next.

I am still in Pennsylvania and will be making my way back to Cambridge sometime around next weekend.  I have been able to do lots of things digitally from afar, but putting the finishing touches on moving and seeing everyone again certainly cannot be done without being there.

My January HQ in PA

Second year of LGO in some ways is crazier than the first, because you have the addition of the job hunt and the thesis.  However, I still think the first year of LGO was the busiest because, unless you go off-cycle (and do your internship Feb-Aug which it seems like many of the '14s are doing), You basically have 12 straight jam-packed months:

• Summer Semester - June to August
• Fall Semester - September to Dec
• Domestic Plant Trek - two weeks of January is taken up
• InternshipFest (when you're interviewing for and ranking projects) and Knowledge Review (when you're hearing what the class about you has done) take up another week of January...
• Spring Semester - February to May (during which you might use spring break to go on International Plant Trek!)

First year just doesn't stop!  From June to June you have, at most 2.5 weeks off in a row.  I know 2.5 weeks off straight is a glorious extended vacation in the working world, but it's a pretty short time for 12 months of an academic calendar.  Definitely not what I was used to from undergrad at MIT!

During my internship, I enjoyed having more of a non-homework work schedule and, this January, I have also enjoyed being able to make whatever plans I like.  I hope this one last semester will prove to be relatively smooth sailing (though you never know), but either way, we made it past the Mayan Apocalypse and through the NHL lockout, so in the words of Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson - "How hard can it be?"

How hard you ask?  I'll keep you posted.