Before my summer becomes too distant of a memory, I wanted to give a brief recap of the 4 months between my first and second year at Fuqua.

May

Day 1: No school, no recruiting, and my internship hadn’t yet started … I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself! I ended up going to the local hardware store and spent the next few days building some gadgets for my kids.

Beach Week in the Outer Banks: My family and I rented a large beach house off the coast of North Carolina with some friends and their young families. There were 25 people total in one massive house for 7 days of kid madness and fun.

Moving to NYC: We jammed everything we needed into our car and drove straight into the big city. I was very glad the key given to us by our sublet landlord worked — you always wonder until you are there. We spent a couple weeks just hanging out and getting oriented.

June

First Day of Internship: I’m always amused by the “first day show” — good food, great speakers, and they make you feel so important to the firm. Then the second day comes and it’s down to business and back to buying your own lunch!

Ramping Up: My summer project was extremely vague. I had to “initiate research coverage” on a very broad sector of high yield bond issuers. Those first couple of weeks were mainly spent reading through 10-K, 10-Q, and Bond Indentures (300+ pages of pure legalese joy).

July

4th of July: I was lucky enough to be excused from work for a couple days to meet up with my extended family in southern California. It was a lot of travel for a short visit, but very worth it.

Hitting my Stride: After weeks of doing my work the “hard way,” I started to figure out the short cuts and which areas to focus on. Many of the people on my desk were very helpful and shared tools and tricks to get the work done. It was during these weeks when I really started to feel the rhythm of the job and the joy of working again.

Hitting her Stride: My wife fell in love with the city (even with 2 young children!). She loved that there were so many things to do for kids and made instant friends with many people in our local church. Together, we enjoyed going out on dates throughout the city and hosting lots of family and friends who came through. She’s anxiously awaiting to see where we decide to move full-time following my graduation, and is crossing her fingers for New York.

August

80-hour Work Weeks: I’m no investment banker and most of my summer schedule was fairly manageable, but the capstone of my summer was one final presentation to the entire team of traders and researchers. I wanted to be as prepared and well-versed in the material as possible, and so those final weeks included long days.

Back to Durham: I felt a strange sense of relief when I officially wrapped up my internship and got on a plane back to Durham. When I landed and saw the greenery, I felt a sense of completion and relief signaling that I had done my best and learned a great deal through the summer.

I feel at home back in Durham, which is interesting because as a first-year, it kind of felt like being at “college” for most of the time. However, I realized that through my time and experiences over the past year, this place has become our “home.” I really enjoyed New York City, but I also love North Carolina. It’s good to be back and at Fuqua once again.