A Letter To Myself.

Dear Erin,
To start, congratulations on receiving your MBA! I know that there was a time during late October your first year that you were questioning your decision to go back to school. Way to stick with it, though. In the end, it was the best decision for you, and now you are all the better for it.

Remember when you had that horrible week where everything seemed to go wrong? You ran for positions and lost; you were less than enthusiastic about your grades; you were rejected from two interviews; you fell out of a chair in front of all your classmates; your bottle of water exploded on your laptop and killed it after doing 8 hours of homework; you had breakdowns, got better, and had more breakdowns; and then when Monday came around again, it just didn't seem any better.

But you got through it. You took advantage of being in classes where you already had previous knowledge; you realized the jobs you didn't get weren't ones meant for you anyway; you appreciated your friends and boyfriend and found endless support from them; you realized that one closed door meant you were closer to the one you were meant to walk through; and you realized that grades aren't everything and that the experience is what mattered.

I hope you look back at that time period and feel proud that you made it through, and you realize how far you've come. There will always be bad days and bad weeks, but you always persevere.  Don't forget that.