I’ve thought a lot about how to sum up my year at LBS, and I now know that it’s really all about the people. Every moment and every milestone. I’ve written about this before and spoken about it more times than I can count, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll never get tired of saying it.
I came to LBS as a recipient of the Stolyarenko Scholarship, and I want to start there, because it shaped how the year felt. On the practical side, it eased the tuition burden for my parents, the two people who are the reason I’m here at all, and to whom I owe this whole experience. But it also served as a reminder for me that hard work pays off, and that it gets noticed (felt very proud of myself in that moment).
That feeling carried into the moments I’ll remember most. Leading a panel at LBS’s EQUALL Conference, with the women on my team, from every programme at the school, behind me in a way I can only call indescribable. Serving as an Academic Representative and as an LBS Ambassador (and, to my excitement, being named Ambassador of the Year, hooray!). Taking on Advanced Chinese without actually having an advanced level, which became one of the most unexpectedly creative challenges of my year and, somehow, unlocked a side of creative improvisation I didn’t know was there. And, fittingly, ending it all by popping open an over-shaken bottle of champagne in front of the sparkling Eiffel Tower to celebrate the close of our Paris Global Experience: laughing, fully champagne soaked, surrounded by my close friends.
Because that’s the other gift LBS gave me: those friends. I met people here I know I’ll stay in touch with for the rest of my life, and I don’t say that lightly. It is, without question, the biggest thing I’m leaving with.
Being part of the scholar’s community was inspiring in the most motivating sense of the word. It pushed me to give the programme my all, and that push came entirely from the people I met through it, who lead by example without ever making it look like a burden. Being surrounded by them made me rethink what I thought I was capable of.
If I’ve grown in one way this year, it’s this: I’ve learned to trust my gut, and to trust how things turn out. I put my effort and my trust into my people, and I’ve come to believe that if I get to be this close to peers this wonderful, I must be doing something right.
And now, the next chapter! At the end of August, I’m moving to Shanghai to begin my year at Fudan University. Someone told me to smile because it happened, not cry because it’s over. Lovely advice, though I fully intend to sob through graduation, and smile only once it’s safely behind me.
I will be carrying all of it with me: the people, the lessons, the friendships. Because in the end, it really is the people.