February 11, 2025
Work Hard, Play Hard, Work Harder
As other blog posts have described, the entire GCIL group spent the past weekend in Hampi. It was quite a magical time that I know for others was a welcomed break and for me personally was literal rejuvenation for my soul. But I’m not here to talk about what happened in Hampi: I’m here to talk about everything afterward.
The ride back from Hampi while on paper takes about six or seven hours but in reality ended up closer to 11 accounting for breaks and everyone’s favorite Indian traffic. While the ride itself was surprisingly not terrible for myself; we did get back much later than expected a little before midnight. My first thought upon arriving at the hostel was “Yeah I probably should have done my work on the bus”. My final thought before drifting to bed after doing said work I should have done on on the bus was looking at the clock and letting dread wrap around me once I remembered exactly how much work needed to be done tomorrow. I made my peace, or at least the closest thing resembling peace, and tried to rest.
I started my morning worrying if I had the energy to get through everything that needed to be done today. Resource grid meeting into mentor meeting into tool book meeting into you guessed it, another meeting. I will say, I did have perhaps the best possible energy booster right at the start of the day with the Superbowl. The closest I will get to saying anything controversial in this program is that the Chiefs loss made me very happy and reinvigorated me to properly get back to work.
The funniest thing about GCIL is you tend to get energy from the most random places. The first mentor meeting had the satisfaction of trying to put together all the adventures and misadventures of the last week and figuring out what to do next. The activities at the tool book meeting while maybe not yielding the best products (“Beyonce” and “destroying” is a fun combination) did yield some positive insights. And the final mentor meeting introduced our group to maybe the sweetest woman in Stockholm. After it was all done, I took a sigh of relief, got into bed, and then immediately got up and grabbed my backpack since the work day was only half done.
Week six is an interesting point in GCIL. Not quite the point of no return for projects but the point where groups are about to cross that line. And my group definitely needs to prepare to cross. So much to do, so little time, as so many projects before. A pile of interviews and a pile of writings all to get to the starting line of an idea. I should hate this and should be struggling, so why am I not? It could be the work that I’m doing is genuinely fascinating. It could be that for all I complain I do enjoy writing a lot. It could be that even if I feel a little lost; I can look back to where I was just a couple weeks ago and see I am so much farther now. Or maybe I just like my group. Who knows, but regardless I’ll see it through to the end. In other news next weekend we have a weekend trip to a faraway place with long travel times. I will likely have the exact same problem of getting back late, not doing enough work during transit and having to jump into the workday immediately after. But to tell you a secret: I really wouldn’t change a thing. To make the most of your time in India, do the following. Give it your all at work. Give it your all with your friends on the weekend. And be ready to give it your all back at work immediately after. It’s not an easy time, but it is a great time.
By,
Simon