And so it begins

So how does this work? Alright, well writing in one form or another is something I've always wanted to do. Getting published is one thing that I dream/think about late at night before I go to sleep when I idealize what I'd love to do at some future point in life. I never thought I would be a blogger but this idea/impulse to do so let's me scratch my writing itch and I hope this is the first of many posts. So what prompted this endeavor and what is this blog about? Well, career wise a lot of life changing events have happened lately and some more are to come in the next couple of months and years. Most importantly is that since August of 2008 I've taken steps to gain acceptance to an MBA program. Also, I've been interested in reading about business school and working in marketing or consulting and last night I found http://marquisweblog.blogspot.com/. It is well written and spans over six years from apps to working at McKinsey and after. I've never had a journal but I'm sure it's great to be able to look at entries and see how one's life has progressed while at the same time sharing your experiences with others who might be going through the same events. All of these aforementioned reasons are why I've decided to also start a blog. To answer the second part of my question, this blog will talk about how I've gotten to where I am today in my MBA process and the career events that take place from here on out as I look to future career paths.

The first few blog entries here are going to summarize general life points and events that have affected my professional path and will then become more detailed once I start talking about how I decided to start considering an MBA and everything that has happened since (studying for the GMAT, apps, and interviews). For ease of storytelling, I'll be posting all of this in chronological order until I catch up with what is going on now.

TO BEGIN

I was born in El Salvador in 1983. My parents had been living in California for a year. A few weeks before I was born my mom went to El Salvador, I was born there and then a month later she went back to California. I grew up in California until I was eight and went to Zela Davis School from kindergarten to second grade. I'm an only child but I was lucky to live next door to my aunt, uncle, and three cousins. When I was eight, my parents decided to move to Chicago. While they got settled in, I lived with my aunt, who had moved back to El Salvador with her family by then, for about 3 months and attended Salvadoreno Ingles for the beginning of third grade. After my parents got settled I flew to meet them in the best city in the world, Chicago mang! My parents didn't like the state of Chicago public schools so after looking at neighborhood private schools, they enrolled me in St. Ita for the end of my third grade. I attended St. Ita until fifth grade. At this point, northside Chicago Catholic schools' enrollment was shrinking so they decided to combine into one school, Northside Catholic Academy, with various campuses and varying grade offerings at each. St. Ita was shortened to K-5. So, off I went to St. Gregory for sixth grade through eight grade. Up until this point I had done average/above average in school. Roughly a B- average. I did discover that I could do well in standardized tests and that I had a strong capacity for math.

At some point during eight grade my parents started looking at high schools. They heard from a family friend that Loyola Academy was one of the best schools in the area. So for four years I spent my time at LA. My parents' decision, sacrifices, and efforts to send me to LA and pay more for my tuition than the rent for our apartment is the one thing in life that I'm most grateful to another person for. Coincidentally, attending LA played a minor but maybe influential part in my MBA application process, but more on that later. As for this entry, I think this is a good point to end my first post.

Starting this blog wasn't as bad as I thought it would. It's kind of liberating to write more freely and candidly than what I've been used to in school and more recently with apps essays where you try to phrase everything so carefully to the point where it becomes a painstaking endeavor. I'll continue this summary part of my blog tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this entry and if you didnt hopefully I can get better at this as I write more. Thanks for taking the time to read my words.