Thursday, March 04, 2010

Trade Offs

Life is about trade offs. Business school is about trade offs. Every decision or inaction is about trade offs. I chose to spend Q3 in Stockholm instead of Charlottesville. I signed for a job I wanted fully knowing I would be in a different city than my boyfriend after business school and that I would start within days of graduation, instead of August 2010 like most my classmates.

My most recent trade off is attending a close friend's wedding instead of a soccer tournament in Vegas. While I'm sure those don't seem equal to most, the Vegas tournament has been one of the highlights of the last two years. And as silly as this sounds, not being in SF makes it harder to go, so I don't want to fall off the invite list completely. But of course, it's not fun to disappoint friends and thus, I will be there to congratulate one of my close friends for the last 12 years on his wedding day. Did I mention his bride-to-be doesn't like me? Though I'm hoping after 9 years, we can try first impressions once again.

2 comments:

Lauren said...

I totally hear ya! Sometimes I think that the sole mission of b-school is to help us get used to dealing with tradeoffs all of the time so they don't phase us later in life. Just keep on going. The people who matter most will understand and you'll end up enjoying the choices that you made even if you might make different ones in retrospect.

Andrew said...

I definitely hear you on trade-offs! I agree with Lauren-- I think 50% of bschool is learning how to prioritize what is necessary over what is preferred.