Tidbits #1

Writing begun at 2:04 am.

As many of you will soon notice, a certain company always leaves a pamphlet all over the School of Management. Unfortunately, the leaflet is called "Tyler's Tidbits." As much as I would love to take credit for the printing----I had absolutely nothing to do with it. It is also possible that I have answered this question more times than an average MBA can say "synergy" during a powerpoint presentation. (The record for saying "St. Louis" in a class period is 13--but I digress).

The pamphlet was troublesome but has inspired me to do a quick shot of updates throughout the year about anything I enjoy about Boston, BU, or the MBA experience in general. These will be the very quick versions of President's Corner topics and promise not to be especially serious in any regard.

For the first, I thought I'd hit on a few things that I have missed from Boston. Some of these are silly, a few childish, but all are things I'm looking forward to back in beantown.

1. My apartment
2. Sega Genesis
3. NHL '95
4. Excessively postered walls
5. Closet door improvisation
6. Cabinet space
7. Closet space
8. The CITGO sign, my beacon home
9. The Commonwealth Avenue wind tunnel
10. The T (nope, that's a lie)
11. The Laura Plattner cheer (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
12. BBQs on the Esplanade
13. The B.U.R.P.s
14. Jon Patterson's steak tips
15. Richard Palmer's "you love it"
16. Heated fantasy sports debates
17. Waxing philosophical with Evan DaSilva on the DH's pollution of baseball
18. Mike Hughes laughing at my indoor soccer "skillz"
19. PS2
20. My jarb in admissions
21. Hayden Estrada's musings on life
22. Temperature fluctuation (San Fran is the same every day)
23. Sunset Grill nachos
24. The FitRec
25. Numbers 23 and 24 never interacting
26. Surround sound stereo system
27. Full-sized bed
28. Boston-based redheads
29. The NHL regular season
30. Kicks and sneaks
31. Mizzou basketball on team room flatscreens
32. The Womanizers study group (blame Britney Spears)
33. Also blame Richard Palmer for #32
34. PG3's impromptu visits
35. My socially-awkward neighbor
36. The Charles River
37. Hipster watching
38. Excessive caffeination
39. Ski lodge weekends
40. David Daniel Davitt
41. Circles watching Dee-wags break it down
42. Friends' kids
43. Crazy townies
44. The back row trio
45. Cohort C
46. The new alums
47. Excessively packed tiny apartment parties
48. Being heckled while giving tours
49. The 5th floor bathrooms
50. Eastern standard time

And lastly, a few songs I can't get enough of:

Arcade Fire "Wake Up"

Bone Thugs N Harmony "First of Da Month"

311 "Stealing Happy Hours"

UGK "International Players Anthem"

The Crystal Method "Divided by Night"

Stream of consciousness over at 2: 27 am.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Almost exactly one year ago last week I began one very long cross-country roadtrip. Packing all of my belongings into a Penske truck, I set out for Boston with my best friend as a copilot. Driving twenty-five hours, straight through the night, we reached my new home at about 1am the next day--and nothing has been quite the same since.

I rolled into the city excited for a new beginning and looking forward to new opportunities but I had no idea what Boston University had in store for me. Faster than I could have possibly imagined I felt comfortable and had made new, great friends. When I first thought of writing this retrospective I knew that I wanted it serve as some kind of guide for our incoming class.

Several good friends and former "2nd years" helped me learn to take advantage of opportunities at BU and I can only hope that our class can pass along the same message. I am excited to see that some of our students have already begun planning "unofficial" social events to integrate the two classes as quickly as possible. We also have an entire group of new students to the School of Management -- the Mathematical Finance graduate students.

Especially for those students making a geographical jump, starting an MBA program is about much more than a set of classes and projects. An MBA is a chance to stretch your perspective on management and also on your own circumstances. Simply put, if someone told me a year ago that I would have the friends I have, doing the internship I am doing, and enjoying the leadership position I am in----I would have told you, (in more colorful, less-blog-appropriate language) that you were nuts.

Some of you are aware that I am an absolute sports nut (and the rest will know soon enough) and while reading an article about the Red Sox pitching surplus the other day I saw the phrase "embarrassment of riches." I absolutely love this phrase. Furthermore, I encourage every student in the graduate school to put together a group of classes, friends, groups, and careers that can only be described as exactly that--an embarrassment of riches.

Blog

After being summoned to write, start, and contribute to a growing list of other blogs, I thought I'd throw all of mine in one place.

The posts for this will come from work for the Boston University MBA Admissions blog (http://bumbastudents.blogspot.com), my professional work on Business Schooled (http://www.business-schooled.com/), and pieces as MBA Council President in "President's Corner" (http://www.smgmba.com/).