By: Nitesh Srivastava
In the Notre Dame MBA program, students have exclusive access to team rooms in the Mendoza building where they can work on group projects together. Given the high demand for these rooms and the relatively low supply, the fight for these rooms often reduces students to their basest instincts. These are their stories.
I needed to work with my friend Bill on a marketing project the other day, but all the team rooms were occupied. “No worries,” I told Bill. “Many of these rooms only have one student in them, in clear violation of the rules. As Notre Dame MBA candidates, we will use our newfound persuasive communication skills to convince them to leave. Follow me.” I opened the door to the closest team room and said hello.
“What’s up?” the student inside said.
I opened my mouth to respond to him, but then I saw his work on the room’s monitors. Finance. A feeling of imminent doom overtook me. I knew my mortality, and I regretted that my final meal would be Papa John’s pizza. Through the window, I saw a crow pecking at the corpse of a squirrel.
“We mustn’t stay here,” I told Bill. “Let’s try another room.”
In the next team room was my wife, arguably my favorite MBA student. I opened the door and said hello.
“No,” she said.
“But—”
“I know your secrets.”
“Let’s try another room,” I told Bill.
We did not recognize the student sitting in the next team room. She didn’t look like she was in the MBA program; in fact, she was reading a freshman-year philosophy textbook. “Undergraduate liberal arts!” I exclaimed. “She’s not even supposed to be in there!” I opened the door and said hello.
“Time is a raging wildfire,” she said. “We exist only to feel its warmth for a moment before it consumes us all. You, I, this team room – it will all be ash, the black sand on which the cosmic surf relentlessly pounds.”
“I was wrong. It’s another finance student,” I told Bill. “Let’s just work in the lounge.”
Read Part II here.
About Nitesh
Nitesh often sits in the MBA lounge. He is also concentrating in marketing and business analytics, and did his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University. Follow Nitesh on Twitter and Instagram, or reach out to him on LinkedIn.