The Decision

Since I arrived in Shanghai, I think my decision has become clearer. While I still think INSEAD is a great school and would offer me the experience of a lifetime, there are other things that are more important to me, and I would like to spend some time in China and use the money saved for school to travel instead. I don’t think I’m going to truly understand the effect of this decision on my career and life until far into the future, but as many have told me, choose the road that you think you’ll regret less. I think perhaps this decision is disappointing to some people, who have encouraged and supported me through the application and planning process, but I hope to still make the most of my time off, experience great adventures, learn things that just can’t be taught in schools, and build bonds with new friends around the world.

As my journey has gotten indefinitely longer, I now need to think of ways to make the most of my time off. So far I have a few ideas:

• Volunteering. So far I’ve found a couple of places I would like to volunteer at in China and Vietnam. I had been very interested in volunteering in Africa, but it actually costs a fortune! I would rather work for free for free, so I am still looking for good opportunities.
• Taking courses on Coursera, an Internet based education site started by Stanford professors that offer a wide range of classes. Not only would I be able to learn from professors at great schools, I would also have the chance to exchange ideas with thousands of classmates around the world.
• Pass CFA level 2. I’ve tabled this feat for a while now, but since I have free time, and given the fact I won’t be getting a MBA any time soon, it would be good to add this to my resume. Can’t wait to get back to those ridiculous formulas!
• Pass JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 1. Spending some time in Japan made me realize how much my Japanese has deteriorated. I probably couldn’t even pass level 2 right now if I tried. Since I seem to motivate myself through testing, perhaps I can use this as a goal to bring my Japanese back up to speed.

P.S. The Internet at our current place is ridiculously slow. It takes about 5 minutes for any webpage to load, and most of the time I have to refresh several times for it to load correctly. I have given up on catching Jon Stewart and listening to Spotify. I can’t finish my Tokyo blog entries right now because I can’t even load the photo upload dialogue. I think this is slow even for China, but since we are moving this week, hopefully I will finally be able to catch up on blogging!