Two amazing things happened in the past two weeks! I was surprised and humbled to win the Sheppard Award for distinguished nonacademic service to Darden (!!!). And then my Summer Employer offered me a full-time job (!!!!).

How both of these things happened, I don’t know. I’m more grateful than I can say, as I’m not usually a winner of anything really, much less awards and jobs. I do know that after I figured out I’d never be even close to the smartest kid in any room here (which took about 2.5 minutes), I decided to try really hard outside the classroom.  Even so, there are incredible people here and I can name at least a dozen of my classmates who work tremendously hard to make Darden a better place and deserve this award instead of me.

I had lunch with a friend who congratulated me and reminded me about last year at this time. Oh yeah… then I was scared, overwhelmed, sleep-deprived and questioning why I was even at Darden. I didn’t believe I could make it through the curriculum and sure didn’t believe I’d get a summer internship, much less a full-time gig.  What a difference a year makes, she said, only half-teasing. And thank goodness, she’s right!