The end of the MBA partner era

Graduation Day at Ross School of Business - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Photo: Martha Rodriguez

All great moments, sadly, come to an end. Two years of Business School fun wasn't not long enough for me. Specially because I wasn't putting in the long hours prepping for interviews, casing, writing reports, or didn't have the pressure of finding a job and finally being able to start paying that student loan w00t w00t! Not to say I don't think my role was absolutely fundamental in my husband's mental health, mainly on those days when everything seemed to go wrong: not being on the close-list for some company, rejection phone call, no phone call at all, a case that was so obvious but went so wrong, and certain company (or most) not sponsoring internationals, etc.

Taking care of our home, cooking meals, making sure he had a clean shirt in his carry-on for that third flight to Chicago, seemed bearable and mundane, but in times like those, little things helped a lot. Other than that, time was equivalent to freedom for me: getting lost in the library, binge watching Netflix, hanging out with friends for drinks, baby showers, baking, craft-making, painting, Book Club, Spanish Club, learning to sew, exploring Michigan, going to farmer markets, apple picking, visiting Detroit, randomly driving places, and my favorite shoot the shit type of days with the finest people. Shout out to the Partners Club at Ross, for hosting many cool events and being a great support system.

Don't think that I personally decided I was going to go sabbatical on my life, it was more of a forceful sabbatical, due to visa restrictions. F1 is the visa students come to the US in, and I, being the plus one, got the F2; which in my perspective is, by far, the worst visa you can be on because you can't seek employment. That meant forceful time off, but luckily, the majority of international partners were on the same visa... that meant many buddies on extended sabbatical. What can be better than that? Well, not many things.

Having the time of my life roughly lasted year, because in June 2018 we found out we were pregnant! Jolly news, however, my little sabbatical endeavors were basically stopped by 60%. Mainly because I felt disgusting and crummy the first three months, and then, as one can assume, many activities involved drinking, so cough...cough, couldn't exactly join to the full extent. Fun was diminished, but not obliterated!

The uncertainty of our future, having a ton of debt and no job prospects at the time, seemed to be exacerbated by our pregnancy and it transformed my thoughts into this unspoken anxiety that would haunt my dreams. Thank God for friends in times like those, I never dared to discuss with my hubs, because I knew he was probably in the same page or in a much darker place. I needed to be the rock for him. Deep down, I knew everything was going to be OK and that he was going to find a great job somewhere, the when was the only shaky ground. That's why, when we found out hubs received a great job offer, we were stoked! Anxiety quickly faded away, and we were left with the waiting game. Waiting for baby, waiting for the official offer, waiting to move and leave the wonderful place we called home.

Finally, it ended, with tears of joy and nostalgia, cheers to an era that would never return. The gap between the end of BS and the start of "real life" was the best. That moment when both my hubs and I were free, free of jobs, free of worrying about money (finally!). However, it did involve some serious "to do list" tackling, we had a small baby and had to move out. My recommendations for surviving; start selling early, take great pictures and make moving bundles (e.g. make a baking set with a few of your kitchen stuff and sell it as a whole). Facebook Market place became my best friend. I was able to sell absolutely all of our furniture and most of our household things. For everything else, Salvation Army or the PTO Thrift Store. I firmly opposed shipping our furniture from Ann Arbor, since we had literally bought the cheapest things at Ikea. I felt we needed an upgrade!

We decided not to take the reallocation moving package offered by the company, and planed to use that money to buy new furniture for our new apartment. Worked out great in the end, but we ended up having more stuff to ship than expected; we had a newborn. Luckily, we had friends that were driving a U-Haul to Seattle and had extra space to rent out. So we took their offer and paid to have some of our stuff moved through them. We also ended up shipping a couple suitcases through Fedex, it was actually not that expensive, but wouldn't recommend it for too many things. There was the possibility of renting out the Pod, but we felt we didn't have enough stuff to make it worth it. We were already paying to ship our car, and we took full advantage of that, we put a TON of stuff in our car. Thankfully we own an old SUV with a lot of space. The trick is that you can't put things that surpass the window levels, so instead of putting large boxes inside, I unpacked everything and individually and put stuff everywhere, under the seats, in the seat pockets, in nooks in the spare wheel compartment. Everywhere I could. One downside is there is no insurance that any of the things you put in the car will make it to its final destination. We didn't put anything too valuable, and everything made it just fine.

Finally, after saying our goodbyes and traveling back home (Peru) we moved to Seattle to start our new life.

In my mind, this was certainly going to be a step up from the MBA student life. Although it definitely is in many aspects, I didn't really think ahead of how I was going to feel staying home all day with a baby and not being able to bring my own money onto the table. When we were in the MBA, I wasn't making any money, but the big difference is that he wasn't making money either. Now, he was the sole provider, and I felt as if I was on some sort of allowance. Strangest feeling, not being an economically independent adult, when you're in your 30s. While, post MBA salaries are good, when you subtract the loan, a baby, rent in the city... it doesn't really feel like you're swimming in cash with only one income.

Basically, I am more than ready to get a job or start doing something else than being a mom Not only because of the economical advantages, but also for my sanity. Even though I love being a mom, with capital L-O-V-E, I still feel I need to focus some of my energy on other tasks that don't involve our baby. Hence, I started small, writing this blog, because I still can't seek employment under my current Visa status - oh boy!