The CBS 2006 Recognition Ceremony took place on May 14th, Mother's Day at Madison Square Garden. The event took place fom 5PM to 7PM although all graduates were told to be there by 3PM. I realized that it was so we can stand around in the back and wait to get in, yuck.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I made the Dean's List as of May 1, 2006. What that actually means, I'm not so sure. Grades really are the last things you think about as a business school student.
The ceremony itself was actually quite good, a few speakers and then student awards, then we each went on stage to collect our alumni pin, the famous Hermes symbol cast in silver and white. Then the final student speaker, PP-M gave the most amazing speech. I was pleasantly surprised that he is such a moving and witty speaker! Here's part of his speech, I thought I would share:
T’was the night before graduation
So many thoughts in my head;
Sadness, elation -
So what can be said?
Seems we just had orientation,
A whirlwind of fun
And so much information
About all that could be done.
We felt like young princes
Who would soon be kings
(Except for the ladies
Who felt feminine things).
Two years to explore,
Hang out and discover,
Such outstanding new people -
Perhaps even a lover.
“Wow! This is fantastic,
Too good to be true,
An expensive vacation,
But what can you do?”
Early days in our homerooms,
Meeting our clusters,
Recounting our stories,
The very best we could muster.
A designer, a dancer
Four consultants, a jock,
A writer, several bankers
And brokers of stock.
“I worked for the Peace Corps!”
“I launched a new brand!”
“I pitched for the Astros!”
“I played lead in a band!”
Such astounding achievements,
Such incredible flair,
It left me to ponder
Just how I’d got there.
Next came the clubs;
A bewildering array
Of everything imaginable
For the discerning MBA.
Soon followed elections
And we endeavored to get
The votes of the classmates
We’d only just met.
Then reality struck
Like a bolt from the blue:
We were hit with Statistics
And Financial Accounting, too.
Debits and credits,
Covariance, μ,
Correlation, net income -
And so much of it to do.
Before long it was clear
Our degrees of freedom were lost
To the lumberjack Clarkson
And marginal cost.
An avalanche of assignments
And to make matters worse,
Four brilliant A-types to work with -
A quite unbearable curse!
In those early days I developed -
I’m not ashamed to admit -
My own confidence interval:
I’d never felt such a twit.
Yet one class was different;
Our most prized possession:
The Thursday night workshops
In Applied Regression.
Disco lights in the deli,
Cheap beer on the floor,
DJ Joe playing Bon Jovi,
Talent-less dancing galore.
This caught on so well
That we didn’t stop there;
Soon beer pong and poker
Became standard fare.
A gossip column emerged
To rival any I’d seen;
Top ten lists for both genders
Scoops mundane to obscene.
For most men at b-school
It soon became clear
The art of courtship eludes us
And should be taught here.
Despite all of our talents
Just this one skill we lack,
But the sheer extent of our weakness
Took the ladies aback:
“Thought I’d meet a guy when I came here
But my logic proved flawed:
It’s true the odds are good,
But the goods are so odd.”
Lest we lose focus
On the reason we’d come,
The next thing that awoke us
Was the resumé drum.
Our latest tormentors,
The Office of Career,
Seemed concerned with our leaving;
“But we just got here!”
So we toiled and we troubled
And learned to our dismay
The GMAT score we’d been proud of
Was only okay.
Corporate events
Then gave us the chance
To engage on a daily basis
In a soul-destroying dance.
With Pepsi on Monday,
On Tuesday with Chase,
The networking was shameless,
The brown-nosing a disgrace.
And the emails kept coming,
And coming and coming,
And coming and coming,
It was truly mind-numbing.
Speakers and pizza,
Pizza and beer,
Did I mention the pizza?
It’s quite popular here.
The pace never relented;
No matter how hard I tried,
I could never escape
From the Upper West Side.
Then finally the home straight
As Eskimo Pie arrived,
Then Follies and finals
Wow! We’d survived.
Looking back now
That semester was golden,
An experience designed
To inspire and embolden.
Though our bonds with each other
Would continue to grow
Through the next installments
Of the CBS show
And so many more highlights
Intrigue and invention,
Boondoggles to everywhere,
Far too many to mention,
But from then on things were different,
Time started to fly,
Until this morning I woke up
And two years had gone by.
I appreciate your patience
With all my rhyme,
I’d love to go on
Alas! We haven’t the time.
But I’d be failing my duty,
Not playing my part,
If I didn’t leave you
With a few words from the heart.
And so I humbly request
Your permission to close
By switching from poetry
Back into prose.
Oh the memories! :) I'm going to miss CBS.
After the ceremony, we hiked up to Carmine's for yummy celebration dinner. Salad, pasta, steak and tiramisu plus a bottle of wine to complete the festive atmosphere.
