Eller College of Management

I drove to school on Wednesday the 5th, my final day of classes as an undergraduate and did not know how I should be feeling.  I had just been so busy to really notice that the end was near because I had so many goals for finishing school.  I wanted to finish strong with graduating with Honors by doing an Honors Thesis doing a bunch of honors contracts in my classes and Magna Cum Laude so I really needed to keep my grades up this last semester.  All that plus working and being a 'mom' to my puppies has just kept me too busy to really even think about how I feel about everything.

It's hard to think that I am not going to be going here anymore, though it will be nice to not have to worry about all the homework, the group projects and studying for tests.  I am so use to the academic life and I have made it really work for me and I really enjoy learning.  I have formed great friends, have a part-time job that I love working with people that I love, I get to sleep in till 10:30 a few days every week and do things during that day when working professionals are working.  Life is just really good and that's all about to change, so hopefully it it to a different good.

So yeah, this is my daily routine.  Wake up 20 minutes before class and walk into something like this.  Now the chairs are squeaky and hard, the room is always freezing, and I spend most of my time on the internet doing I don't know what, but, this is where I have made some great friends and contacts, stressed over group work, learned about managing people (which skills I got to try out with my desk staff), and just learned so much about what is really means to be in business.

I applaud Eller.  It is really hard to learn business because so much of it is actually doing it.  And in general, a lot of it is simple concepts that people understand, but when actually put in a situation where they have to use it, most people wouldn't apply or remember the concept.  It happens all the time, so how do you get someone to understand something so well and make sure that when they are in that situation, they will apply it instead of forget about it.  That is hard and I think Eller has done a great job teaching those things.  I know business schools get a lot of crap, but really, I have grown so much from my experience in Eller and have really become a 'professional', or at least way more professional than I would have been if I hadn't gotten those academic experiences.

This morning was my last final.  I am officially done with my undergraduate degree :-)