It takes two

So we were in. Yes, we. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but this whole decision to go to business school was not one just made by my husband. It was, most definitely, a collaborative effort. In fact, for quite some time, he didn’t want to go at all! He made a lot of money at his private equity job, we lived in a great city near our families, we went on vacation quite a bit, we saved – excessively, in my opinion – for retirement, and we still managed to eat out and buy basically whatever we needed (or in my case, wanted). Giving all of that up to pay $80K a year for school was not high on Cam’s list of fun things to do.

However, I knew that in order to move ahead in his career and keep up with his peers (yes, that is important), he had to go. I also knew that we weren’t getting any younger and in three or five years down the road, I might not be so open to picking up and moving out of the state. I began pushing him to get going with his applications. But we first had to decide where to apply to. Where were we comfortable moving? What schools made sense? We had visited Stanford on our way to Australia in 2006, but I just didn’t think I could go that far (I am, I admit, overly attached to my family). According to Cam, everyone had to at least apply to Harvard. Fine – one down. I suggested we go somewhere warmer, such as UVA, but that was shot down as not “elite” enough. Based on his career interests, we finally decided Wharton and Booth were the final two. Chicago was about as far as I think I could handle. My sister had attended UChicago undergrad, so I was somewhat familiar with the city and enjoyed it. Hotdogs as a major food group? I’m in.

I only mention this whole decision making process because deciding to attend school for two years – possibly in a new and distant city/town - is a major commitment. Sure, this was Cam’s career, but it was our life. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been surprised more than once by wives or girlfriends who were seemingly dragged here – uprooted from careers they loved and homes they were attached to – just because their husbands (or boyfriends?! I will get to THIS later) decided to go to graduate school. This was a difficult adjustment for me, but at least I felt as though I was part of the decision and had I said “No, we just can’t go there,” I don’t think we would have come.

But, I didn’t say that, and here we are.