Safety Net~

"When you're young, your whole life is about the pursuit of fun. Then, you grow up and learn to be cautious. You could break a bone or a heart. You look before you leap and sometimes you don't leap at all because there's not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there's no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?” SATC

A direct quote from one of my favorite episodes from the TV show Sex and the City. I find it interesting how Carrie Bradshaw and I can find parallelism through relationship with B-School.

 

So it is my final semester at Pepperdine as an MBA student. I could not tell you how fast the past year and half went by.... When I started the program in August 2007, I was young. (well younger than I am now..) Everything Pepperdine had to offer had exceeded my expectations. I loved my peers, professors, classes and I got to live in Malibu! I have had the time of my life at Pepperdine while obtaining my MBA. Everything was so fresh and I learned the true meaning of "networking." So it comes as a shock that I have only 12 more weeks of school left. I have 12 more weeks of my "safety" net before I head out to the real world. Suddenly, I am getting cold feet and dreading taking that leap into the "real" world. All the case studies, constant group works and presentations were excellent practice. However, school is one big safety net where if you fall, your professor will pick you right back up and let you try again. 

Here's the thing. Once you realize there is no safety net, you get cautious in life. And as soon as you start to get cautious, fun becomes non-existent. So here's my latest epiphany at 11pm on a Sunday night. I have been given this great opportunity to further my education for the past 2 years. While my finance/accounting classes were a bit dry for me, I was passionate about learning the materials. I put myself out there in group projects, in class discussions and everything Pepperdine had to offer. The reason I was able to take risks is largely due to the fact that I had a B-school safety net under me. While B-School preps you for the real world, it is not the real world.

But passion and being cautious is very correlated. If you're too cautious in life, then how can you ever going to take risks? And if you never take risks, how are you going to ever realize your true passion in life? By putting myself out there at Pepperdine, I have developed confidence in myself through realizing my passions. Therefore, when I do take that leap in April (when I graduate) I may not be so scared. True I'll have no safety net, but then again, why would anyone want a safety net underneath them their whole life? 

A classic life experience~ When I was 14 years old, I learned how to walk in my mom's 3.5 inch heels. I practiced on top of my parents king size bed (my mom would be livid if she ever found out) so that when I fell, I had cusions around me. But after I perfected my strides in those fabulous Chloe heels, I began to strut on the streets in the "real" world. And I've never thought twice about needing a safety net.