Section J returned to the HBS scene with renewed vitality from a well-deserved winter break. While some felt the bite of the economy and went in search of summer jobs, some preferred to ski, socialize or do the old-fashioned “Home for the Holidays.” Many came back loaded with goodies like Julie Bell who came back with a Tivo (How did they know?) and a huge supply of long underwear to get her through the Boston winter. Although I dearly love the handmade apron my mom made for me (that go in the drawer with my handmade dinner napkins), I couldn’t help but be a little jealous when I saw the stylish red leather accessories that our Historian Sarah Kauss returned with. One person at least came back with something missing: Our very own Diego Syrowicz, who left last term a little on the shaggy side, claims to have grown some form of a beard as a project for his future kids (to giggle about?), but unfortunately the photographs that he took for corroborating evidence were taken with a camera with no film. Thus, all his eyewitnesses remain in Argentina. We are very glad that Alex Scherbakovsky came home at all after driving in near-zero visibility on a ski trip in Tahoe.
One of the more interesting stories from the break comes from Malay Kundu in his own words: “Samta and I were in Ft. Worth, Texas, for the holidays. One of my uncles in Ft. Worth owns a gas station. The day after Christmas, TV crews appeared at the gas station announcing that my uncle’s gas station had sold the winning lottery ticket for the $36M Texas State Lottery! And because his gas station sold it, he would get 1%, or $360,000!!
“TV crews from all the local news stations came throughout the day, and the ABC affiliate was still there when our family had gone down to see all the excitement. That night, ABC did an “American Dream” story about my uncle coming to the U.S. nine years ago and making a place for himself in the “fabric” of America. Then, out of nowhere, they cut to a clip of my brother and I mentioning that “(my uncle’s) nephews went to MIT, and after taking part in the Internet boom, one of them is now going to Harvard Business School” as they zoomed in on the HBS sweatshirt I had given my Dad for Christmas! In a matter of 10 seconds they had woven in all this extraneous information and gotten me and HBS on TV throughout the local news in Dallas/Ft. Worth and the local news in cities all over Texas!
“And to top it off, my sister-in-law who lives in Dallas ended up have her baby a few weeks ahead of schedule on **New Year’s Day**! And we were still in town to see our new nephew! So between a percent of a large lottery and an New Year’s Baby, we had a pretty eventful holiday!”
Welcome back Section J!
