Blog for School

We are all taking turns updating a blog that CIMBA has. It is my turn right now, so I thought I would share my first entry. Enjoy!

Having been at CIMBA for several months now, I'm learning to just go with whatever is thrown my way. First, it was LIFE (Leadership Initiative For Excellence), a program that helps prepare your mind to thinking like a leader. Next was the high ropes course in Slovenia, two days of adrenaline-filled experiences eight meters up in the air. After that we started our classes and were immediately being challenged to do well in school all while learning how to act as a team outside of class.



For me, someone who has one undergraduate degree in French and one in International Studies, every single class I encounter is brand new. Before the first statistics class I had a small anxiety attack thinking that there was no way I would ever be able to do the class. Luckily, some of my teammates calmed me down saying that learning statistics is just like learning another language. They told me if I could learn French and Italian, I could definitely learn statistics. Having already completed and received our first statistics test I can tell you that they were exactly right. Not only did I learn a whole lot, I did extremely well! With every curve ball thrown my way, I take that same rush I got from receiving my first grade in statistics and use it to remind myself that if I put my mind to something, I can do it.



This brings me to our consulting project. My group is the first group to get their assignment for one of the two consulting projects we do throughout the year. We already had one meeting, for which I was extremely nervous. I survived and actually feel that I did a very good job in that meeting. Tomorrow two of the five group members are traveling to Trieste (where our company is located) to have a second meeting. I am one of those two people. Up until about one hour ago, I thought the meeting was going to be with the same man with whom we met last time. We are, indeed, meeting with him, but thanks to an email I just received, I found out that we are also having a conference call with the head of this project. Had it been two months ago, or even one month ago, I would not have had a clue how to handle meeting with such an important man. I probably would have asked one of the other group members to go in my place. But now, thanks to all the preparation this program has already given me, I'm surprisngly calm about this turn of events. In fact, I am almost excited about it. Not only will I be able to prove to myself that I can handle this, I will be able to prove to my group that I am flexible and ready for anything this project presents to us. Considering we are barely a third of the way through the program and I already feel prepared to take on anything, I cannot wait to see how I feel at the end of these eleven months. I have a feeling it's going to be quite the experience.