A disclaimer: I’ve been sketching out what I need to post about here and there are 29 (!) posts sitting in the queue, waiting to be fleshed out and published.  That’s a bit overwhelming, and I thought it might be somewhat confusing if I continued posting “as is” without any explanation for why final exams are happening in July. 

So, (to reveal the true timeline)… 

Yesterday was the last class day of the RC year!  I have conflicting feelings  about the whole thing:

1. Academically: We’ve studied and discussed hundreds of businesses over the last year, and it has been a fascinating journey.  From start-up to multi-national, from retail to raw material, from citizen to criminal, from gov’t agency to NGO.  When I stop to think about it, the sheer magnitude of businesses we’ve studied is astounding.  Taken individually, 30-page cases seem short, but they add up quickly (one statistic from BGIE shows we read over 1000+ pages in that class alone).
2. …but, I’m not sure how much of that has translated into generalizable lessons.  Where are the hidden business secrets that are reserved for those who devote time to deep study?  Should we be modeling about all those esoteric complex financial instruments like they do at Chicago?  Or is the learning  possibly more surreptitious at HBS?  I think you have to hope that the 500+ cases have built a deeply embedded database in your mind… ready to be drawn to the surface by pattern recognition when you encounter a similar situation in the future.  Realistic?
3.  Socially: I’ve been blown away by how close I feel to the 90 people in my section.  I would never have expected to build the bonds we’ve built… part of it’s the way the case method works (like a big group discussion) and part of it’s from the social activities.  I definitely feel like I could call any of these people up in the next 5-10 yrs and ask for a favor.
4. …however, I’m not sure if I’ve built the type of relationships that last 10 yrs+.  Part of it’s due to choice – I’ve definitely spent more time “outside the HBS bubble” spending time with my significant other than most.  Most of it just has to do with interests… the majority of people here seem to go out and drink every night.  While I wish I could enjoy that more, it’s just not my scene.  Still, even though that crowd get all “the press”, I think there’s a huge portion of my section (and HBS) that are more like me.  
5. …the real tragedy is: every once in a while I’ll find someone who likes exploring the outdoors, enjoys museums, prefers dinner parties and politics, and might even humor a dorky game of Pictionary.  My greatest regret from the year is that I didn’t seek these people out and spend more time with them. 

All in all, though, it’s been a fantastic year and I definitely wouldn’t give it up for anything!

Until then, in the spirit of weekends past, I thought I’d share some pictures from a couple weekends ago.  We headed out to Great Brook Farm State Park west of Boston for some biking and icecream.  It was surprisingly difficult figuring out where to go.  From a first glance, the NE seems very different than most other parts of the country… there aren’t as many state / national parks here.  I guess all the land was already owned (and occupied) before the government could acquisition it.  Anyway, Great Brook is essentially a bog:

Trail at Great Brook

A bog with nicely landscaped trails, a thousand visitors a day, and a trillion mosquitos: we biked around for about 15 minutes and dashed back to the car with red welts all over our bodies.  There’s also a functioning dairy farm within the park:

Mooooooooo...

Some good (overpriced) icecream there, but the excitement of watching cows sleep and eat made it all worth it.  We went out and sat down in the sun by the pond to enjoy the calories:

Pond at Great Brook

Nice hardcore biking trip with lots of exercise, right?  Honestly, it’s just hard to do anything in Boston.  I thought it would be easier with all the people packed in, but all it means is that it takes 2 hrs+ to get to a tiny crowded park less than 50 miles from the city.  Ok, enough complaining — it was a gorgeous weekend, and as I get ready for the retreat this afternoon, I’m sure I wish I could go back and add another 40 degrees to the thermometer.

Sooooo, I thought I’d put up a few photos from the weekend prior.  It was probably the last summer weekend of the year.  The last day you could wear shorts and not look crazy:

The Last Day of a Sunny Charles

There was a big festival on Sunday in Harvard Square… Oktoberfest.  Lots of food vendors, a parade, and tons of people.  So many people that it wasn’t actually much fun.  I guess this is the problem with crowded Northeastern streets… they just weren’t made to hold a capacity of a million people going to one festival:

Oktoberfest in Harvard Square 1

Oktoberfest in Harvard Square 2

So, after milling around for a while with the crowds, we escaped to Boston Commons.  This is a park in downtown Boston (similar to Central Park in NYC, but not nearly as big).  A few street performers, a guy playing the bagpipes, and a lovely lunch of Whole Foods hot buffet w/ iPhone games:

Boston Commons in Summer

All-in-all, a lovely relaxing sunny weekend!  If Boston were like this every weekend, it might actually be a decent place to live.