What is a Tar Heel?
I have tried everything to avoid the fact that I’m going back to school.
I’ve just finished the latest Dan Brown book and now I’m chipping away at The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. I’m busy reading as much pulp as possible this summer because I have a feeling the real reading begins soon. It was much easier to be distracted in June and July though. There’s was a World Cup going on and even better – I was there. Seven vuvuzela-filled weeks back home in South Africa was a fantastic distraction from the pending pressure of an upcoming Executive MBA program. Unfortunately, like all good parties, there was hangover to deal with when it was all done. The end of the World Cup brought on a collective depression for most South Africans and I was no different. What made mine worse was that I had to board a plane back to Washington DC where I was greeted by a seven-week tall pile of mail. At the base of that pile was a pale yellow manila envelope with a “University of North Carolina Chapel Hill” stamp on it.
It begins.
Actually for me it began in February. That was when a “restlessness” annoyed me enough to drive me to start contemplating what the next step in my life would be. An Executive MBA resonated with the place I found myself in, and almost immediately I started looking at a number of schools. In the end I decided to choose a program which had a global focus and was close to Washington. That left two schools: Georgetown and UNC – Hoyas vs Tar Heels…Bulldog vs Ram…Jordan vs Ewing…It was an impossible choice because both schools are fantastic. Having the luxury of being able to make a decision between two options when you know you can’t make a mistake was a novel experience, but a wonderful dilemma to have. It also made me wish that more decisions in life couldn’t be that way – just think how much easier dating would be.
Choosing a school was only the first step of this adventure; my next challenge was figuring out how to pay for all of this. Why can’t chasing dreams cost less? Recent legislation has resulted in the government being the originator of most student loans – this serves to lower transaction fees and cut out the middle men…Great if you’re a citizen, not so cool if you’re a “furrenner.” Luckily for me, American gals like South African accents, which is how I ended up being engaged to one. And even more lucky for me is that I have the coolest in-laws in the world who agreed to co-sign my loan a year BEFORE I married their daughter. Yay for Sallie Mae!
Get in to school…Tick.
Figure out how to pay for it…Tick.
Log into school email…um…no tick. It took me exactly one week and I have already screwed up my UNC passwords – the Onyen made me cry.
Three more weeks till class, three more weeks till football season. I can’t wait for either to begin.
Cheers.
