Exam. It's a four-letter word, and it has the power to transform an entire week. Beautiful fall days become 24-hour stints in the library, normal clothes get traded in for high-school sweatshirts and Lululemon yoga pants, and sanity takes a backseat to stress. It's not pretty. And it can actually get pretty ugly.
In my former life (high school/college seem like 20 years ago), exams weren't just synonymous with sleepless nights, they were also equated with seclusion. Why? Because everyone, myself included, went absolutely nuts. Broke up with your boyfriend of five years? Whatever! Call him after you finish U.S. History. Car accumulating hundreds of tickets because you're too exhausted to park more than one block away from the library? Deal with it after you hand in your English paper, duh. Best friend's birthday coincides with Calculus? No one ever lost a friend over a "belated birthday" card (I don't recommend testing that theory). You get the point.
This past week, however, things have looked a lot different. Well, not the sweatshirt-yoga-pants routine, but the I-can't-bear-to-deal-with-anyone-when-I'm-this-stressed routine. Here's a little bit of what I've been seeing:
- "Fast-start" students helping not-so-fast-start students, reviewing countless cases and technical notes when they could have easily gone home to veg on their couch instead.
- Learning Teams meeting for hours to just ensure that everyone feels confident about the material.
- Friends editing old spreadsheets, writing copious notes in Excel just to make sure every detail is explained.
And the list goes on.
I didn't expect this. I thought business school was going to be about competition, not cooperation. Or maybe about stress, but definitely not about support. This past week has proved me wrong, and I'm delighted.
So, thank you Darden. Thank you fast-start students. And thank you, friend who edited my spreadsheet (you know who you are). You have made this week surprisingly bearable.
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