Lessons from the WiRL Summit
After visiting and interviewing at NYU Stern this weekend, I realized that it has been nearly a year since I started my process of applying for an MBA. According to my Amazon purchase history, I bought my first GMAT book on December 24, so really, I'm 15 days short of a whole year. But I won't actually find out whether I'm accepted or not from all schools until January, so I feel pretty comfortable saying it'll be a whole year.
Stopping to think about this past year, I'm amazed by how much I've learned about myself, especially the things that others could see so clearly in me that I completely missed. When I told my friends that I was going to quit Amazon to get my MBA and pursue a career in the sports industry, a lot of them thought I was crazy, but a select few just smiled and said, "Took you long enough." While I've enjoyed watching sporting events for longer than I can remember, I had shied away from a career in the industry due to the discrimination I'd endured by just being a "knowledgeable" fan. Thinking of a career in sports when I was younger made me shudder. But there was no denying my passion considering the first thing I do in the morning is check ESPN, during lunch look at Twitter for news, and at night turn on the TV to attempt to watch five basketball games at the same time.
I told one my closest friends first, and she just smiled. She talked about how it wasn't surprising to her, considering we'd lived together for 2 years and she witnessed my screaming matches with the TV when the game wasn't going in Gonzaga's favor. Or the layers I'd put on to go camp out for tickets to a big game. Or the hours I was willing to drive to attend an away game, for 2 teams I didn't care about, just because I hadn't been to a football game in too long. She's been my rock for a long time, and one of the most supportive people throughout this process.
Going even further back though, I stopped to think about what had finally given me that last push to quit a stable job and pursue this. And I realized that it was an online summit I was fortunate to hear about and sign up for. The summit was put on by Mitch Shepard, founder of Women in Real Life. This was an incredible opportunity for me to participate in. It was about 4 weeks long, an hour a day. Every week had a different theme (leadership, communication, potential, and happiness) and each day had a different speaker to motivate you. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll write about different speakers I enjoyed, and what they taught me.
Stopping to think about this past year, I'm amazed by how much I've learned about myself, especially the things that others could see so clearly in me that I completely missed. When I told my friends that I was going to quit Amazon to get my MBA and pursue a career in the sports industry, a lot of them thought I was crazy, but a select few just smiled and said, "Took you long enough." While I've enjoyed watching sporting events for longer than I can remember, I had shied away from a career in the industry due to the discrimination I'd endured by just being a "knowledgeable" fan. Thinking of a career in sports when I was younger made me shudder. But there was no denying my passion considering the first thing I do in the morning is check ESPN, during lunch look at Twitter for news, and at night turn on the TV to attempt to watch five basketball games at the same time.
I told one my closest friends first, and she just smiled. She talked about how it wasn't surprising to her, considering we'd lived together for 2 years and she witnessed my screaming matches with the TV when the game wasn't going in Gonzaga's favor. Or the layers I'd put on to go camp out for tickets to a big game. Or the hours I was willing to drive to attend an away game, for 2 teams I didn't care about, just because I hadn't been to a football game in too long. She's been my rock for a long time, and one of the most supportive people throughout this process.
Going even further back though, I stopped to think about what had finally given me that last push to quit a stable job and pursue this. And I realized that it was an online summit I was fortunate to hear about and sign up for. The summit was put on by Mitch Shepard, founder of Women in Real Life. This was an incredible opportunity for me to participate in. It was about 4 weeks long, an hour a day. Every week had a different theme (leadership, communication, potential, and happiness) and each day had a different speaker to motivate you. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll write about different speakers I enjoyed, and what they taught me.