One of my first encounters with my fellow classmates began with me being kinda creepy (per usual). My class, which is approximately 225 students, was milling around outside in the quad, when I eavesdropped on a few people discussing an upcoming dinner function at the Center of Public Leadership (CPL). Since I assumed these were members of the CPL Fellowships (see CPL Fellows here), I inserted myself into the conversation. This was at a significant risk, since I was already tired of the "30 second" intro bio that each conversation began with. Oh, hey there! My name is (fill in the blank). Where are you from? Oh cool, what did you do before coming here? Me too! Welp, onto the next person... But I went ahead and went through this exercise again, and I was pretty much stunned.
Of the four individuals I met, two were a joint MBA/MPP (Masters of Business Administration / Masters of Public Policy) here, another was doing a concurrent degree at HLS (Harvard Law School), and the fourth was on the same track as I am at Yale Medical School. We easily lapsed into conversations about CPL, how the different degrees worked, whether Law was harder than Medicine (no question Law is way harder, with few job prospects), and of course, whether we should pay college football players a yearly stipend. That's all well and good, and I was excited to talk with people on similar flight plans, but I had to take a step back. This is freakishly not normal. Who signs up for these sick, perverse, tortuous life tracks where they sign up for like six different degrees. Lunatics. It's just not normal. And then I realize that I'm just as sick and perverse as the rest of them... and we'll probably be friends.
It is fascinating though, and a unique skill set. People talk about the intersection of business and government, or law and government (the HLS/MPP student was also Rhodes Scholar at Oxford; even more nauseating, but he's very chill). It's a very interesting perspective, and I look forward to watching the careers of these individuals progress, as well as writing bios of them on this blog.
So overall it was a fun week. I discovered that I'm not a hard-nosed negotiator during one of our "mock" classroom exercises. (I got swindled out of massive amounts of fake money because I've become a fluffy-softy doctor-in-training over in fluffy-softy Asheville.). And then later we all had our chance to introduce ourselves to the other 224 students, during which I may not have gotten off to the best start...
In my defense, it's not really my fault. I guess everyone would say that though. So (pause for effect), there is a tradition here at the program in which all students of the program must take 15 seconds to get up on stage, in front of everyone and a microphone, and say whatever they want. Most people introduce themselves, often with a funny spin. This, however, was NOT how I believe it was explained to my cohort. I was told that we had 15 seconds to "do whatever we wanted" in front of the class. Now what does that mean? To be honest, introducing myself didn't even cross my mind. I thought people were going to perform talents. Why not belch the national anthem? Hula-hoop and baton twirl, or maybe Irish dance? Who knows. The point is, I was misled, and thus woefully disadvantaged.
By now, everyone has heard of the "Gangham Style" dance. If you haven't, it's here, but you must have been hiding under a rock for the past month otherwise. At the time of this posting, it has 160 million hits in about two months. So I decided that since I couldn't think of any 15 second talents, I would just say, "Hi, I'm Robert, and I've always wanted to do this." Then I would just go for it.
I was scheduled to "introduce" myself about midway through the incoming class. But after about the first 50 people or so, I realized NO ONE was dancing/burping/hula-hooping, etc. However, I hadn't prepared a witty introduction. I was stuck. So I stood up, said what's up, threw on the Sunnies and danced my ass off. Exit stage right to a very confused group of spectating nerds. In retrospect, I just hope there was at least one person in the whole audience who knew what I was doing (or does now). Fortunately, I do think I got a few sympathetic cheers.
Ooopa Gangham style. Heeeeeeeeeey, sexy laaady!
NB: It's always good when your Mother tells you after the fact, "I think you were about 2 weeks too early on that joke, sonny boy..."
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