Home Stretch?

As promised I said I'd talk about the work that we do as LGO's.  Summer seems to have gone by so fast yet slowly at the same time, there have been weeks that have felt like AN ETERNITY where there are simply not enough hours in the day to get your individual readings done, work with your groups, participate in committees, and somehow manage to get some sleep or have a social life.  This isn't all together surprising as it IS in fact a dual degree program at MIT.  But alas here we are something that somewhat resembles a home stretch....

Sleep...take it when you can get it

There are about three weeks left in the summer and while I've had an absolute blast thus far, I'm some combination of tired, excited, scared for the next three weeks.  These weeks include a Stats helicopter project, an interview and process write up for high velocity, a leadership paper, a class production of Antigone (not making that up...), a Lean culture paper, assorted plant tours to local businesses, a simulation write up for Ops Management, a Systems Optimization final project and an "individual timed homework" (I'm sorry Professor Ashlagi but that is a TEST, I don't care what you call it).  In addition there are some individual homework assignments, readings, and case studies that remain as well but that gets you the gist of it.

Seems like a lot...and it is...  But that doesn't paint the complete picture of what it means to be an LGO student.  At the end of the day the LGO is about WAY more than time you spend in class (but that is important too).  The committees you take part in, plant tours you attend, CLGO's you meet, the small groups you work in will all teach you something and add valuable knowledge to you.  But it's not free, it comes with a cost of your time and effort.  A LOT of time and effort...

So why do this?  Why the LGO?  Is it worth it?  A lot of people will say that graduate school grades don't matter, an MBA is just a check mark, everyone gets A's and B's anyway...  So why work hard?  What's the point?

Shotguns in normal hands...
Assault rifles when Lizzie and JS hold em..

While I don't have the complete answer for that I do have some thoughts.  First being, put 48 dual degree MIT students together and there aren't a lot of slackers.  If anything I'd say we can easily get caught in the trap of working too hard.  Putting that aside, I think you get out of the LGO what you put into it.  The amount of knowledge in an LGO classroom is astounding and diverse (same goes for our opinions).  None of us came here for a check mark, none of us came here to "get through it."  We came here because we want to expand our technical knowledge, we want to grow as managers and engineers, we want to be leaders.  And it's this drive that will carry us through these last three weeks of long days and nights where sleep is a precious commodity (the week off afterwards is also a good motivator...).


On a final note...it's easy to get stressed out and worry about school and lose sight of things.  We all do it.  But even though we work hard, we play hard.  And nothing will cap off a Wednesday evening like 3 dollar pints at BHP, shooting hoops, and mowing down bucks...