This semester, I’ve been lucky enough to attend a cross-cultural class with one of my favorite professors. Get this (for all the readers of this blog), the professor I highly recommended from the Depaul MBA program, Christopher Barlow, is now teaching at UIC! Random luck and fate heading in the right direction by attending UIC.
Anyways, back to the story. Barlow teaches a class in which he integrates evening MBA students with Chinese students from UIC’s one year concentrated MBA program, CMBA. It’s certainly an interesting class since there are different ideas, cultures and prospectives. During one of the in-class group projects, I was lucky enough to placed in a group with Ed (fellow MBA) and Gavin from the CMBA program. Gavin enjoyed our group and asked for our numbers. He said we should definitely hang out sometimes. I thought nothing of it since it has become a common courtesy in our society to exchange pleasantries. Fast forward to a week later, I was at home making dinner when my cell phone rang. I answered the phone and was surprised to see that Gavin and followed through with his suggestion. He suggested that we eat at the buffet that he had presented in class a few weeks back. Since I had already started making dinner, I declined the offer and went back to cooking. As I was stirring my curry, I thought about the offer some more. Wow, this guy had actually followed through. It wasn’t just out of courtesy that he asked for my contact information and he seemed genuinely interesting. Lesson #1: Don’t ask if you’re not genuinely interested and don’t do something just because it’s the social norm or it’s courteous. When would I get a similar chance like this again? I called Gavin back a couple minutes later and accepted his offer.
As we were enjoying the buffet, I asked Gavin what he did this past weekend. Gavin responded that since they only have a year here in the states, they try to do as much as possible and enjoy as much of Chicago as they can. At first, I didn’t think much about this statement. I finished an enjoyable dinner and left a few pounds heavier. When I got home, I thought about Gavin’s statement even more. These CMBA students has one year to try and enjoy as much of Chicago as then can. I tried to imagine myself in a similar situation and at first, I felt sad for them. As I thought about it more, I realized that most of these students probably explored more of Chicago than I have in 20 years. Not only that, they lived their lives knowing they might only have a year here and took some chance and risks. I realized that I shouldn’t feel sorrow for them. Instead, I was envious of what they accomplished in such a short amount of time and how much they seem to enjoy it. Lesson #2: Live your life to the fullest.
There is a lot to be learned from people with different cultures and backgrounds. They brought different ideas to the table and seemed to do it with more enthusiasm. Sometimes, the most important lessons you learn are outside of the classroom. That, my friend, is what make this program so special.
Posted under UIC MBA Liautaud
This post was written by Jay on April 8, 2009
