That’s it. It’s been two years since I started grad school at MIT and last month I finally graduated.
It’s such a bittersweet feeling, when you are happy that classes are over, that you are going to start earning a salary again – these two years converting from Brazilian Reais to US Dollars have been HARD – but at the same time you know your so recently made friends are going to scatter across the US, if not the globe.
When I applied to the Leaders for Global Operations program I had no idea that a global pandemic was going to hit us. It made things way harder than they should be. Starting with classes, I had an entire semester online, studying from Brazil because I couldn’t get a visa to go to the US. It turned making friends in such a harder task, as we couldn’t meet in large groups, so every gathering had to be with 6 people or fewer. But it also made the relations I built so stronger. We were all going through it together, facing the pandemic hardships and MBA and Engineering classes, problem sets and exams together.
From cookbook club – a Sunday dinner that Paige, one of my good friends, started on Zoom and eventually moved in-person, to fall getaways and spring retreats. Every interaction we had was with purpose and led us to where we all are now.
How to build relations in a pandemic world? Zoom cooking and dinner
Two years went by really fast. After the Summer semester online, I had a Fall MBA Core semester, a Spring semester filled with fun electives, six months of internship at Nissan, and a final semester where I tried to take it more chill, but still had to crunch out my master thesis. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of so many incredible colleagues and family, specially my wife.
So, what have I learned during these two years? Besides the obvious academic points of an MBA and an M.Sc., I learned that good leadership exists, and that leading is an exercise of empathy, trust and example. Oh, and I also learned to ski 😊
I made the video below as a graduation video for my class, and it just shows how close we all became.
Finally, life does goes on. I’m taking a break from everything during this summer and will start working mid-August. I’m super excited about it and I will be in an operations related position. This will require me to move to New Jersey, more specifically Jersey City, and apartment hunting is quickly becoming my main task.
Today, I couldn’t be happier that I was part of this incredible cohort. LGO Class of 2022, it was a pleasure going through grad school with you.
♡
