It’s down to the wire for my HBS application and I don’t think I’m going to make it.  I have been unable to get in touch with two of my recommenders and the third says he did it, but the system didn’t register anything.  By the time we start work tomorrow, second round applications will be due (and all too soon overdue).  It was disturbing to come to this reality, since I really want to get into b-school this fall, but at least there is still one more round.  While that round is extremely tough since most of the class will already have been formed, I hold out hope that I will be able to stand out.

I’ve still got another day and a half to get my Stanford GSB application submitted in time for round two, so I’m going to put all my effort towards that and this time I will not fail. I will spend all day tomorrow making sure my recommenders get those recommendations in before we leave work.  I won’t accept another missed deadline!

Oh what a marvelous thing has happened!  It has been years since I started developing and talking about my business philosophy, one of the key components of which is a business partner.  Finally, I have stumbled across the first viable lead and I am thrilled!  I’ll call him Maven, since that’s what he is as per Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point.  Maven and I both have a strong interest in business and our conversation recently led us to budding partnership.  He has a fantastic idea for a business and I have all the eagerness and complementary skills that he could ask for.

I feel like it’s been a long time coming, so it’s really rewarding to find someone who has a vast number of skills that I don’t, and who needs the very skills that I do have.  At the same time, we share many values and both believe in the synergy that can be created to make a partnership more than just 1 +1.  It’s just enough overlap to agree on the important things, and plenty of complementary abilities to pack a powerful punch.  I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect scenario!  If nothing else, 2011 will go down in history as the year I met Maven.  A very fortunate experience indeed!

Whether or not we are able to get this idea off the ground (and I am confident that we can and will), I have a great feeling about just knowing Maven.  There’s a lot to learn from him and he is a fantastic conversationalist!  I’d been craving the kinds of discussions we’ve been having – about business, personal philosophies, psychology, and so many other topics.  We’re both very curious, inquisitive folks who think a lot, ask a lot, wonder a lot.  I’ve never had someone ask me so many “whys” about my beliefs and it really helps me understand myself better.

In addition, I got a kick out of the fascination we both seem to have with personality tests and what can be gleaned from them.  I love reading personality profiles!  I feel like I learned a lot about him when I read the description of his “type,” whether or not all of it was accurate.  At least it gave me a good basis for understanding the type of person he is.  The more I get to know, the better it all seems.  With our work ethics, determination, and combined efforts, I wouldn’t put anything past us.  You just wait!

I finally got my GMAT over with!  That’s the first big hurdle in the process and I did alright with a 710.  It’s not as good as I had hoped I could do, but right on par with how I had been performing on practice tests.  It’s also a good enough score that it won’t hurt me in my application, though I was shocked to find I only scored in the 76th percentile on the quantitative section, even with a scaled score of 47 (which I thought was decently high).  In the verbal section I got a scaled score of 41 and that put me in the 92nd percentile, which was also the overall percentile I ended up in with my 710.  Curious – do many people do that well in math but poorly in English?  Am I competing against a lot of foreign test-takers or something?

With that off my back, tomorrow I’m heading off on a site visit to check out both Berkeley and Stanford’s MBA programs.  I’m hoping to make some friends with my fellow travelers, all of whom either took a class with my GMAT teacher or know someone who did.  Hopefully we’ll all end up at our dream schools!  I’m looking forward to seeing the Stanford campus again and maybe even learning something I didn’t know that will help me with my application.  Once I get back from that, it’ll be time to buckle down with my application essays!  At least I’ve gotten the recommendations underway, with all of my recommenders aware of the questions and deadlines.

I have just over a month to complete my applications and I’m really hoping I can put together a strong profile that will get me in.  I don’t have as much work experience as most of the other applicants, but my experience has been a super-condensed rollercoaster ride that has taught me a lot.  That should make up for a lack of years worked.  That’s the great thing for working for a small company!  You end up learning and growing so much more than you might have at a large corporation, espeically with all the hats you have to wear.  I’ve even been adopted into the engineering team more recently, since I’ve been working with our CTO on some things that he used to take care of.

It feels good to have time to dedicate to my applications now, but those essays are daunting.  I really want to present myself in such a way that they can’t help but take me.  That will be the hard part!

Today’s my mom’s birthday!  I can’t believe a year has come and gone.  I remember this time last year she wasn’t here, so we didn’t really celebrate.  This year I’ll be going back to see her later in the week and hopefully we can get a nice dinner in before resting up for an early flight that she’ll need to catch.  Soon, I’ll have my birthday too.  My how it all flashes by!

I feel like there hasn’t been that much to pace my life by, since a work day is pretty predictable.  I’m nearing two years of employment at my company and so much has changed, yet the pattern of each day makes things blend a lot more than during my school years.  Within the next year or two I’ll be changing all of that though – it’s about time for a shift in my life.  Going back to school will offer me a change in scenery and pace of life.  I always enjoy shaking things up a bit!

For now I’ll just prepare for that next stage and marvel that in 2012, my parents will be twice my age!  Has it really taken that long to get to this point?  Sometimes I feel older than I am, but of course there is still so much more to grow.

I did it!  I finally scheduled my GMAT exam, which brings me one step closer to getting my applications ready for b-school.  It’s in just under two weeks, so I’ll definitely need to do some final prep work over the long weekend.  After that, I will transfer all my energy towards applications and pump them out in a month.  It all sounds daunting, but a little bit of pressure usually gives me the motivation I need to take care of business!

I’m optimistic that I can put together a profile making me a strong candidate, but the reality is that only 5-10% of applicants get in and I’m definitely on the lower end of the scale when it comes to work experience.  Hopefully I can make up for that and state a good case for my qualifications.  The good thing is, it wouldn’t kill me to get another year under my belt and I’m not in a huge rush to get an MBA right away, so even if I don’t get in to Harvard or Stanford (the only two I’m applying to this year), I’ll just try again next year.

Of course I’m definitely hoping I do get in for the entering class of 2012, but at least I have the luxury of more time if I need it.  There is definitely a lot of experience I can still accrue with an additional year.  However, I feel there are a lot of opportunities at work out of my reach without an MBA to back me up.  Getting that degree would really help me over a hump in my career that otherwise may take two or three times as long to overcome.

I’m looking forward to getting the test out of the way so I can focus all my energy on my applications.  If I can, I’ll definitely want to make a classroom visit too!

I’m not sure why, but I have had an aversion to following seasonal trends in the past couple of years.  I guess it’s because after reading so many articles about Christmas, New Year’s, or the like, I don’t want to be contributing to all that.  After all, how original could you get with that stuff?  Instead I prefer to enjoy the season, where people are hopefully making positive changes in their life as they look to family and re-evaluate their priorities.

This year I’ll be vacationing in China with my parents, which is a great way to spend the holidays.  It’s too bad Panda couldn’t be with me too, but we can do plenty of trips in future years.  I’m really looking forward to going back to China; it’s been 3 1/2 years and it will be nice to visit again.  You can be sure that around that time I won’t be writing about a tree and presents!  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other wonderful things to write about and thank goodness for that!  If you want the same old holiday stuff, go watch some TV.  :-P

I went out to the east coast for the weekend and on Saturday, it was raining or sleeting all day.  At times, it almost got cold enough for us to get some snow down in the DC/VA area.  Almost.  I hear that more northern parts did get snow, and quite a bit, and I’ve got to say I’m a bit jealous.  I was hoping for some snow to enjoy here as well.  While I’d all but forgotten the experience of getting into a cold car and trying to defrost the windows while warming up, I do miss snow.  Nobody said I had to miss all the unpleasant experiences that come with it, right?

My selective memory allowed me to remember a brisk walk with snow crunching under my feet.  Pretty positive memory.  It allowed me to remember building snowthings and catching snowflakes with my tongue.  Very positive memory.  It did not, however, allow me to remember the bitterness of a freezing cold car.  Not so positive memory.  Well, that’s how it goes I guess.  After so many years removed from this kind of life, I chose to focus on the things I did like about it rather than that which was less desirable.  Nevertheless, with all the pros and cons trying to weigh each other out, I still wouldn’t mind moving back to more volatile climates for awhile.  It’d make me appreciate LA even more when I returned, right?

I’ve been working on getting the motivation to properly study for the GMAT and prepare my applications.  It’s really hard, since once you get out of a groove, it’s really hard to get back into it.  I’ve been out of school for nearly three years now (yikes!) and it’s been awhile since I’ve really had to study for anything.  I was doing well when I took my GMAT course earlier in the year, but since that ended, I’ve been halfhearted with my attempts at studying.  I really need to buckle down though, so I can get the score I want and feel confident with my applications.

How do I get that momentum going again though?  I’ve tried arranging study sessions with friends that keep falling through, and I keep reminding myself, but every time I should, I just want to unwind after a long day.  Even on the weekends I get tired and would rather be lazy than productive.  Maybe it’s because I don’t feel the pressure just yet.  I do tend to work pretty well with a deadline looming or something making my work more urgent.  I think I’ll outline a plan and start counting the time I have left before everything is due.  With concrete numbers in my head, I might just have to tighten the reins and get my act together.

So much has changed at work in the past couple of weeks – the call center people moved to a new office, a couple of people left, and we had some major changes with an important client I work with. It feels like a season of change or maybe even growing pains that we are experiencing and the office is a lot quieter now! I’m reminded of when I first started, when there were just about a dozen of us.

I am also the only full-time girl left in the office again. It can definitely get lonely at times and the constant ESPN playing on our TVs is a reminder of the disparity in gender. I don’t usually mind though, since I’m used to environments dominated by men… JROTC & ROTC, film crews, and the financial industry, to name a few. In fact, not too far into the future I will be at yet another one: business school!

Overall it’s the sudden drop lack of talking in the office and the extra empty space that has changed the vibe, so I’m looking forward to a good bonding session at the upcoming company social this week. The tide seems to have changed around here, ushering a new era for us! I think that may also mean a shift in my focus at work, so hopefully that turns into plenty of learning and growth.

Ever get impatient with life? Sometimes I just want to get on to the next stage and get that MBA, finally live with Panda, and be married. I look forward to the future a lot and I’ve been anticipating it for years! At the same time, I know that life as it is now has its own perks and I shouldn’t lose sight of all that I have now. While I kind of want a fast-forward button to press, I still value all that I get to live out today.

Still, sometimes it’s nice to think about all these great future plans, isn’t it? This seems especially true as I start to see more and more of my peers moving on to the next stages of their lives, getting more education, settling down, and starting a family. Every now and then I can’t wait to go to business school and then move in with Panda and start our little family, kids, cats, and all. But I guess life comes as we’re easy and I’m definitely not ready to get marked or have kids yet, much as I look forward to when that part of my life comes.

For now I’ll try to take better advantage of the things I can do more easily now – explore my passions, travel some more, and maybe even move somewhere new!