Did I Reach My MBA Goals - and Wrestle Mania

First and foremost, let's talk about Wrestle Mania. I stumbled upon a viewing party last night, and I truly believe that Wrestle Mania is more about who you watch it with than the event itself. But the event is also ridiculous. Some personal viewing highlights and takeaways:

1) The coupe de gras. I don't know what this move is, but it's definitely my fave. I'm going to try to execute some coupes de grases in the next couple months prior to entering the real world.
2) The attire. It's incredible to me that in all the head banging and body slamming, the speedos never move. Really speaks to the costume designers. On that note, Ronda Rousey, while displaying some rookie talent, clearly hasn't figured out the costumes, because she kept having to adjust her apparel, which I believe detracted from her overall performance.
3) Hype men. One wrestler, whose name escapes because there are a lot of names, had a hype team of pancake tossing little people. The words of the announcer: "It's like I just passed out and went to flapjack heaven." What do I need to do to get me one of those? I envision a man, or woman, maybe both, parading before me, chanting "Navs," to the beat of Eye of the Tiger, tossing brownies and miniature bottles of wine to the spectators. This still needs some flushing out. A goal for my next phase of life.

Which brings us to the topic de jour. When I started grad school, I wrote a blog post with six goals. Always one for accountability, the time has come to revisit said goals and assess my success.

1) I'm combining goals 1 and 3, because they are both fulfilled through Follies. Lead a club and do something completely outside my comfort zone. Though I acknowledged my large comfort zone at the time, orchestrating a production was far outside my comfort zone. It stretched me in ways I didn't think business school would stretch me, from creatively writing story lines to maintaining enthusiasm under pressure. My biggest learning moment was when I realized I had disappointed the head writer, because in the mayhem of production, I hadn't communicated effectively. He was quite gracious, but he told me something I will hold onto in the next phase of my illustrious career. It was after a final filming session - one of dozens - when he said: "Anna, what's great about you as a leader is that you're inspirational, and people want to be around you because of your excitement. And last night was the first time I saw you lose that." When everything is moving quickly and you're tired, it can be hard to remember what you bring to the table and execute on it, which this experience made very real to me. Who knew a stupid comedy show could help me grow. I mark goals 1 and 3 as accomplished.

2) Find a mentor. While objectively a failure, I did build relationships with a number of people whose opinion I deeply respect, and a handful of people I can go to with questions in the future whose guidance I will trust. We'll give me half a point. And I'm going to chalk the lack of mentor up to the temporality of the program. I will yet find a mentor!

3) Get involved in a church. Mostly a failure, though not for complete lack of trying. I signed up for a small group, then I had a weekly writing session at the same time. I went to church when in town, but then I was only in town for half the Sundays, and sometimes there were meetings or a Saturday football game or just a late Saturday night. These aren't excuses, but more a reality I recognize and will be more conscious of in my next phase.

4) Make a couple friends who will invite me to their wedding. Since a couple means two, I'm fairly confident I've accomplished that, or at least two friends I will incessantly nag to invite me to their weddings when they come.

5) Squat 190 pounds and do a muscle up. Double fail because I think my squat got worse.

I also happened upon my orientation packet in which I found a chicken scratch sheet of what I saw my career being after school. Some of the characteristics were: Midwest, average work no more than 50 hours/week, small to midsize company, sports. Obviously, Amazon is a natural fit. There were some other criteria, too, though: creatively and analytically challenging, problem solving, passionate about the company and service it provides, agree with the leader's vision.

So grad school didn't turn out the way I expected. It wasn't a path back home. I wasn't as disciplined in some areas that I wanted to be. I failed multiple times. I questioned myself more than I thought I would. But I also learned more about myself than I thought I would. I learned I really do like to lead, even though I still have a lot of room for growth. I learned people will often surprise you if you're willing to look under the surface. I learned there are a lot of different ways to look at problems, whether in the workplace or in the world, and the answers don't have to be mutually exclusive. And I learned that more than anything, I want to be in a place that pushes me to my limits, even if the prospect of entering it alone makes me uncomfortable. Most of all, though, I learned I want to kick some ass. And obviously take over the world. With a hype man.