Hello, Chicago!

Six weeks since the 7:30am phone call congratulating me on my admission to Chicago Booth, five and a half weeks since I gave notice at work, nine days since I left LA, seven days since I arrived in Chicago, six days since I finished unpacking, five days since the start of my pre-MBA accounting course, three days until orientation begins and two and a half weeks until the start of first quarter classes.


There has been an odd "just this" feel to everything. When I was packing, I was just packing. When driving across the country, bouncing along in the U-haul, just driving. When I arrived, just unpacking. Just finding the grocery store. Just going to campus for the first time. Just sitting on the 48th (top) floor of my apartment building in the computer lounge, facing a wall of windows and gazing out at a blue sky and downtown Chicago and just typing. Just breathing. A month ago I lived and worked and practiced in LA. Now I live and study in Chicago. Just this.

It was very interesting to sit in the accounting course this week with 45 of my 550+ new first year business school classmates. I watched an instinct to box everyone arise. She is this, he is that. This is how they fit together. This is where I fit in relation to them.

Something else arose alongside the boxing-in instinct; a willingness to accept everyone exactly as they were, with a genial sort of friendliness. I found myself wondering what life would be like if I met everyone and everything with that type of acceptance. Then I wondered, why would I do anything different?

Being in an entirely new place among entirely new people and entirely new circumstances is shining a light on how I live and engage in the world. I hadn't expected such a wide and clear window, but I appreciate the opportunity to get to know these aspects of myself better.

I'm challenging myself to resist the urge to box, both myself and the people I meet. Can I meet my classmates, neighbors (near and far), teachers, exactly as they are, similar and different, without judgement? By judgement I don't mean criticism, negatives; I mean the simple labels we place on ourselves and others, that nonetheless stop us from being truly open to possibility. I don't know, but I'm really going to try.