How I Spent My Semester Break: Prediction vs Reality
Here at Babson, we are just getting back into the swing of things after a much-needed and much-deserved month-long break between semesters, which included the Holiday season. Instead of boring my readers with a full breakdown of the prior semester including favorite classes, what I learned about financial valuation, and a lengthy discussion on the principles of financial accounting, I figured I could provide something a little lighter: a much shorter breakdown on how I assumed I would spend my time off, and how I actually spent my time off. Without further adieu, here we go:
Prediction #1: Take some time to seriously reflect upon what I learned in the previous semester, and how these fundamentals and frameworks can be utilized going forward in real-life professional situations.
Reality #1: My brain completely turned off the second finals were over – it was mush. That being said, I still think I’m in much better shape than before school – I can’t look at something I’m buying without thinking about the potential profit margin on the item, and I find myself analyzing the net present value of potential “investments” (being a broke grad student, I’ll use the word “investments” broadly).
Prediction #2: Continue to be productive with any free time I have – research companies I’d like to work for, further work to increase my network, and prepare cover letters for summer internships which I likely won’t have time to prepare when I’m back in “school-mode.”
Reality #2: For the first week of break, I definitely had issues sitting around for periods of 15 minutes without doing anything – I literally had this feeling of guilt in my stomach. Let’s just say that feeling subsided a little more quickly than I wanted it to…
Prediction #3: Use the extra time off to finally catch up on reading those books I wanted to over the past few months (reading for leisure! It happens!).
New Dennis Lehane!
Reality #3: I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t read another thing. The only item in my hands were a remote control, cold beverage, and between the hours of 12-1 pm and 7-8 pm daily, whatever terribly unhealthy food was within 
reach (No – there was no breakfast – most days I woke up too late).
Prediction #4: Finally get back into exercising after somewhat of a frustrating temporary hiatus during 1st semester.
Reality #4: See Reality #2 above.
Prediction #5: “Recharge the batteries,” as they say – get away from the cold, take a week off on some small island in the Caribbean, and have a drink or two while getting a nice sunburn tan.
Reality #5: -I worked at my old job 1 or 2 days a week to get some extra money, had the pleasure of looking at each and every one of my classmates (so it seemed…don’t bother arguing otherwise) taking a week (or two) off on some small island in the Caribbean, while never leaving the frozen tundra of New England.
So that about sums up my semester break experience. Although I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I had planned, in hindsight, I’m actually not sure I would have changed that much about it. It was a much-welcomed break from the intensity of the Babson MBA program.
How did others spend their school breaks? Was anyone more productive than I was? Where did YOU go over break?