This past December
18th was probably one of the most memorable days of my life. Why you ask? It
was the day I got my call from Kellogg and the day I committed to quitting my
job at General Mills and doing an extended trip during the summer.
To be honest I took
a risk with the job at Mills. The woman heading up the new analyst program
promised opportunities to learn from some of the best marketers in the consumer
packaged goods industry, however, there was one caveat, there was NO CAREER PATH.
Essentially I was putting all of my eggs into one bucket and by taking the
position I trapped myself in some sense at Mills in the short term.
General Mills is a
fantastic company but it wasn't necessarily the perfect fit for me at this point in my life and so the
wait for grad school acceptances was that much more stressful. I had only
applied to 3 schools: Stanford, NYU an and Kellogg. By the time the morning of
the 18th rolled around I had received some not so exciting news from both
Stanford and NYU. Kellogg was tied for my first choice with Stanford but I had
nothing to fall back on now. To top it all off, Kellogg calls everyone that is
admitted on the same day and then that night emails out rejection letter to all
those not accepted.
The morning of the
18th, I sat around at my desk, frantically checking my phone every other
minute. In between that I'd check the blog message boards online to see if
anyone from the Midwest had received their call. They started calling people at
around 6am and by 9am my phone was dead from the number of times I had clicked
the screen to look for a missed call.
This was my dream
hanging there teetering back and forth on a balance. At 11 I started to see
people from the Midwest post. The stress of the idea of not getting in hit my
mind. Keen on distracting me a coworker grabbed me for lunch. I went
reluctantly, figuring that the staff at Kellogg probably wouldn't make calls
anyways during that hour as they had to eat as well.
By the end of lunch
I was tense to say the least. I tried to hold conversation with my coworker but
it was clear that my mind was else where. I apologized and they noted that they
understood. On our walk back they tried to break the tension and they joked
about how I had worn a purple polo that day (the school colors). Truth be told
it was on accident but now I was very aware how intense I must appear in the
office. When we got up to our floor, I checked my phone and grabbed my laptop.
I was going to sit on the couches in the lobby and work. Maybe a change in
scenery would help to distract me.
At 1:05pm shortly
after sitting down on the couch, my phone started to ring. My heart started to
race with the ferocity of a jolt of adrenaline. My breath quickened and I
swiped the green circle right to answer the call.
"Hello, this is
Morgan Lippitt."
"Hi Morgan, I'm
calling from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. How's your day
going?"
Even though I knew
this was THE call, I needed them to say it. It was not real unless they said
it.
"I'm calling to
let you know that you've been accepted to our 2yr MBA program."
My face contorted
from the anxious and stale look I had worn all day to a giant smile. I could
feel that my face had turned bright red. I couldn't stop smiling. My heart was
racing and if I hadn't been at work I probably would have danced/shouted out
the second I got off the phone. In that moment, I was no longer trapped, I was
free but more importantly I accomplished the initial step of my long term
goals
Having felt so
fearful of being trapped in the role at General Mills for so long all I wanted
for my time after working there was to feel free. As a result, I committed to
traveling for 2 months over the summer but refused to actually plan out any
details. I did not want to be bound to anything. I wanted as much freedom as I
could afford myself for the trip given my budget.
My original idea was
that I would go to Chiang Rai near Chiang Mai after the girls left, however,
not wanting to end my time with Tom and them I decided to cut the city from the
agenda. This was the freedom that I wanted and was enjoying. As a result I had
an extra two days and one night in Chiang Mai before I would hop on a night
train with Tom to go to Bangkok and then fly to Northern Vietnam.
To fill that time,
Tom and I took our bikes up into the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai. The
girls had done this ride was some guys from the hostel and said it was amazing.
One of the guys had actually crashed his bike, taking a turn to fast and almost
in the process edged himself off the cliff. This worried us but having just
spent the two previous days enjoying the motorbike experience we couldn't
resist a final 4 hour ride out to a hill tribe village and back.
The ride was
refreshing. Thai summers are brutally hot and the sun beats down upon you as if
intentially trying to cook you from the outside in. This ride was thankfully
covered completely by trees. The road snakes deep into the mountain curving in
and out and around the large jutting sides. The higher you get into the
mountain, the colder it gets. There was a point in which we were so high that a
fog actually was surrounding us in cool mist. We couldn't even see down the
Cliffside into town.
Unlike the previous
ride, my thoughts weren't toiling over people or situations. Instead I was just
completely present, . All I could take in was the green hues the leaves and
grass were giving off. There had been so much rain that the color was rich and
deep as off chosen off a color palate. Absolutely unreal. As I sat on my bike
riding through the pass, I yet again found myself hearing my friends voice from
back home.
"Morgan,
Remember Take back all the sights, sounds and tastes."
It's funny that this
friend's words stuck with me so much, especially given how short I have known
him. For some reason, they stuck with me. It was probably the greatest goodbye
gift I got, a reminder to record and to archive my memories.
The ride that
morning was just what I needed. It cleared my head. With the exception of my
friends reminder, it forced me to stop thinking about the people and memories
from the last 3 years. Like that call on the 18th, the ride freed me. All I
could feel was pure happiness and awe. By the time I got back to the hostel, I
was content to just sit there and write for the entirety of the afternoon. I
didn't need to move or take action. I took the time to document and not
reflect.
The only thing I
needed to do that day was buy my own and Tom's train ticket for the next day's
night train. He had decided to go to the zoo while I relaxed at the hostel. I
had opted out, it wasn't for me.
With no agenda for
the evening, I ended up tagging along with Tom to Jane's Restaurant for a BBQ
night she had in the works. It really didn't take much to convince me to join
Tom and some other guys from the cliff jumping caravan for dinner. All they needed
to say was burger and Jane's. I was sold.
The BBQ was a
thousand times better than I expected. Having grown up in the US, Jane had gone
all out with the food. Potato salad, burgers, and Cole slaw. Everything was so
freaking fantastic. At one point, we left after our first slider to go check
out a local food stand market but only ended up coming back for another burger.
That was probably
the best decision we made. We left when the party was dying down and when we
came back it was just Jane and a small circle of her close friends. There was
an attractive all American guy, a guy that looked like Harley from Lost and a
few Indy/hipster Thai people.
As we got into
introductions, we found out that the all American guy was actually a jazz
saxophonist in Chiang Mai. Tom mentioned how he had heard a saxophone over by
the old city wall earlier that day and as it turned out, it was Mr. All
American, blowing away practicing for an upcoming show. I don't know if it was
that I was enamored with him or if he actually was an interesting guy, but I
found his story fascinating in the moment. With that said, now a month later, I
struggle to recall it exactly. My guess is it was the former.
After introductions
and back stories, the conversation switched to food. Food conversations are my
forte. Maybe it's my inner fat kid or maybe it’s my work experience but I love
talking to other nationalities about their food and sharing details on my own
favorites. Jane and the all American went back and forth at one point on
whether or not he should get royalties for giving her his dad's burger recipe
that she used.
"Are you
freaking stoned?" She retorted to his demand for credit.
"The recipe was
just a list of random spices and with out any quantities." She jabbed.
They dynamic of the
group was something you could only dream of. No one was trying to one up each
other or get the final word. It was just free flowing like you'd imagine a
group of old friends would do at a café on the river in Paris. It made Chiang
Mai feel like home for me. The stories and memories they shared made the city
less touristic and more enigmatic. There was more to it than what we had seen
so far. We had just brushed the surface.
As the conversation
moved through different food topics, it somehow transitioned into macro
economic food trends across the globe and labor difficulties in different
countries. It was one of those conversations you can't recall but remember it
being intelligent. By the time it ended, it was 1am and we were all
sufficiently tired. Tom and I left proud to have spent the night with a mix of
international locals. There is something nice about freeing yourself of the
confines of tourism and spending the night as if you were in your own home town
talking with friends.
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