Trust the process. No, really.

I am reporting to you live from the second floor of the library, in a study carrel located somewhere between a girl eating very crunchy potato chips (Sun Chips, you say? I thought so, too...) and a printer that refuses to print. Since my mother is probably concerned that I'm subsisting only on a diet of Twizzlers and Sugar Free Red Bull, I'll add that I'm happily eating a Clif Bar (yay carbs!) and drinking a Diet Coke (yay caffeine!) in hopes that it might kick my Excel skills into high gear. Thus far, however, no luck.

At moments like these, when I am stuck somewhere between cells L78 and Az23 on my spreadsheet (which is a very dark place to be, I might add), I try to avoid getting immediately discouraged. Given that I have about three more hours with Excel, this seems like a patronizing and ridiculous thing to say to myself. But then I remember - this has happened to me before! When, you ask? Well, let me think...yesterday at about the same time. And the day before that. And the day before that...and, even, the day before that!

In fact, it seems like I find myself at this place almost daily, clutching a Cliff Bar and a Diet Coke while wrestling with Excel in an obscure corner of the library. This is fabulous, I shout (very quietly)!

Fabulous, indeed. Because, if I survived yesterday's case, then I will probably survive today's. I'm not sure how, but by sheer force of will or divine intervention, I will make sense of this NORMDIST function or discover the true value of "Goal Seek." Or maybe, I'll use Crystal Ball to come up with a Decision Table that provides the magical, and fancy-looking, answer. Or better yet, I might just run a regression and compare R Squareds and T-Stats!

This is nonsense, my fellow Poli Sci/Journalism double majors would say! Well, of course they would, because it sounds like complete gibberish. And the beauty of it is, one month ago, I had no idea what any of this meant, either!

But in the past Term (Dardenspeak for: an uber concentrated three-week chunk of classes), something has happened to this non-traditional MBA student. Somewhere, between munching on Clif Bars, chugging Diet Cokes, and tearing my hair out over Excel, I've actually learned a helluva lot. More, I'd argue, than I've had time to realize.

Which reminds me, why am I still writing when I have a spreadsheet that needs some enlightenment!?