“Time flies fast” and this is exactly what I felt after the first few terms at Fuqua. Six months went by in a blink of an eye. There were so many memorable moments during this period that it was tough to narrow them down to a few.

It all started within the first few days after orientation—the MMS cohort had our Triangle Training day of team-building exercises. The thought of it excited me because there were a lot of fun activities to be done. It was a good 30- or 40-minute drive during which I bonded well with one of my teammates. That was the start of a great friendship, as she’s one of my closest friends in the program now.

We reached the destination and were divided into groups. Our team was Team OJ—the orange team. We did a few cool initial activities in our teams like rope climbing, strategic puzzles, balancing a board, and more. The most exciting part, however, came when the entire cohort got together for the wall climb. It was raining and everything got sticky but our enthusiasm didn’t change. The exercise was a joint effort where everybody needs to climb “the wall” with support from their teammates. All of us came up with a strategy and the timer started. Everybody was cheering each other on and the energy was high. In the end, we successfully managed to finish the activity and created a new record as well! It was perhaps one of the most tiring but zealous days at Fuqua to date.

The next memory that stands out came towards the end of the first semester—Fuqua MMS Winter Formal. It felt like a grad school prom, with guys in suits and girls in dresses. It took place at The Fruit in Durham and the vibes were immaculate. The place was decked out with lights, décor, great music, a photo booth, and an open bar. People danced their hearts out and took what seemed like millions of photographs. The best part was to see all our classmates together. Since we have different schedules, we don’t all meet together very often, but here we were, no classes, no assignments, just fun and celebrating us. One of the best parts was that the DJ played songs from across the world, thus embracing different diversities, which is what Fuqua strives for. It was an eventful night and left us eager for the Spring Formal!

Fuqua’s culture is all about community, team building, and making those memorable friendships for a lifetime. Well, these two days definitely stood up to those values, thus making us even more appreciative of the first six special months that went by. I would definitely recommend making the most out of your time in this program because this valuable opportunity will never come back!