...and finished!

My MBA is finished, after two years of studying into the night, and on weekends. All the coursework is done, I now just have to wait for the administrative process to churn out something certifying me.

I’m happy the whole course is over; I learnt a lot, and I am going to miss some aspects of the study, but I’m very ready to put it to one side. Some things I have learnt, beyond the academic:

• Giving yourself time off is important, even if there is no time to do so. When you work every waking moment, the quality of what you do, and your productivity starts diminishing. I found that without forcing myself to take breaks, I couldn’t maintain the same standard of work.
• Sitting down, working all day, then sitting down and studying all night is not good for your health. I am going to be spending a good portion of the next 6 months removing a few kilos of study weight.
• When you’ve finished, you’ll need to spend some time rebuilding your social skills. After two years, you get out of the habit of doing anything beyond communicating the bare essentials. Perhaps that’s also due to the amount of things you need to juggle, but again, I’ll be devoting some time to getting back in swing of social events.

Its going to be another 6 months before I do the formal graduation ceremony, but I’m glad all the work is done. It’s been a great experience; not easy, but worth it. I’m looking forward to spending more time with my wife, who’s hard work gave me the time and space I needed to do the course. Naturally I’m also looking forward to building more train tracks for Zac.