Where are you from?

“Where are you from?”

I was getting my hair cut at SuperCuts on Saturday when the nice Syrian lady cutting my hair innocuously asked me that question. It’s one I often hear, and yet it’s surprisingly difficult to answer.

If you don’t know what I mean, consider the context. I was born in Maryland, I’m most recently from Michigan and currently live in the Chicago suburbs. When, I’m traveling, I think that ‘Chicago’ is a sufficient answer to get to the meat of what the other person wants to know. When I’m not traveling, though, the question is a little bit different. I don’t think any of the three answers above are sufficient for what the other person wants to know. Now, throw in the fact that most white people getting a haircut don’t typically get asked where they are from (barring a thick accent), and I think you get the true gist why I’m being asked that question. Read the rest of this entry →

09

03 2010

Set For Life?

Note: This is an entry I wrote for my Kellogg Student Diary, which was a student life blog I kept as a student at Northwestern. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m copying my entries to my personal blog to preserve my writings. You can read all of the entries by viewing the category Kellogg Student Diaries.

Every now and then, I’ll catch up with a non-Kellogg friend and mention that I’m getting my MBA at Kellogg. Their response, “Oh, you’re set for life.” Read the rest of this entry →

09

03 2010

FOMO

Note: This is an entry I wrote for my Kellogg Student Diary, which was a student life blog I kept as a student at Northwestern. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m copying my entries to my personal blog to preserve my writings. You can read all of the entries by viewing the category Kellogg Student Diaries.

Among the many Kellogg-isms that become part of the student lingo, there is one that every first-year student can relate very well: FOMO – the fear of missing out. Read the rest of this entry →

15

12 2009

And what’s next?

I’ve been bad about finishing this series because of the sheer workload at Kellogg, but its almost completely appropriate for me to write this post today. I am now one quarter into my Kellogg experience and the obvious question is, “What’s your plan?”

I’m somewhat proud to admit that I purposefully came into Kellogg not having a clear plan of what I wanted to do. As an undergrad, I was the complete opposite, and I ended up realizing that I took certain classes way before I was mature enough to appreciate the material. I did well in my classes, but I could’ve gotten so much more out of them. Read the rest of this entry →

10

12 2009

So Why Now?

kellogg_campusThis is the second part of my three-part series on some recent changes in my life.

After my first post, I think most people’s follow-up question is very obvious. I moved to Detroit for my dream job and I ultimately fell in love with the place where I lived, so it seems incredible counter-intuitive to suddenly want to leave after 3.5 years, so I think its begs the question: Why did I choose to leave? Read the rest of this entry →

30

10 2009

Kellogg Impressions

Note: This is an entry I wrote for my Kellogg Student Diary, which was a student life blog I kept as a student at Northwestern. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m copying my entries to my personal blog to preserve my writings. You can read all of the entries by viewing the category Kellogg Student Diaries.

“Back to school. Back to school. To prove to dad that I’m not a fool.” – Billy Madison

At any age, there are definitely a few magical qualities to the first day of school: the excitement of starting a new phase of your life; the nostalgia of finding yourself back on a college campus; the thrill of finally meeting your new classmates. Read the rest of this entry →

19

10 2009

My Thoughts on Detroit

Hockeytown Cafe, right next to Comerica ParkI’ve had some pretty major life changes recently and I wanted to reflect before I wrote about them. That’s why this blog has been inactive for the past three months. But now that the reflection is over, I’ve turned my thoughts into a three-part series — today will be part 1.

So what’s happened? In March, I was accepted to the MMM program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kellogg has a top-notch MBA program, so taking the opportunity was a no-brainer, but it also meant I’d be leaving Detroit; a city I’ve grown to love.

So let’s start at the basics: an outsider’s thoughts on Detroit. Read the rest of this entry →

15

10 2009

The Celebrity Life

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or taping a season of Survivor, I’m sure you’re well aware that last Thursday, the world lost quite possibly the most famous musical entertainer ever — Michael Jackson.

I’m sure somebody will comment about the quality of his music and name some other acts that were much better, but I will go out on a limb and say there was not a single person who was a bigger international celebrity than Michael Jackson.

But this isn’t a blog entry about his music, his level of fame, or what did or didn’t happen in the Neverland ranch. This is a blog entry about the ensuing media coverage. Read the rest of this entry →

02

07 2009

A man with a .plan

If you started college in the 90s then you surely remember the old UNIX email accounts the university gave you. You’d login to your server with telnet and use pine to check your email, and it was all text-based.

If you were also part of a tiny secret society, you also dutifully updated your ‘.plan’ file. The ‘.plan’ file was a text file in your main directory where you’d add a personal message and maybe even a message for a few of your friends. You’d also check your friends’ ‘.plan’ files with the ‘finger’ command. For instance, my email address was ingale@students.uiuc.edu, so another person could potentially read my ‘.plan’ file by typing ‘finger ingale’. Read the rest of this entry →

21

06 2009

Wake up!

I’m going to spend this blog entry complaining about something that’s really been bothering me lately.

Go to a bar or a restaurant on a typical Friday night and you’ll notice a new trend that’s starting to take hold. You’ll see groups of people sitting together, but each buried in their own mobile devices, barely paying attention to the people they’re with because they’re so busy engaging with people who aren’t actually there. Read the rest of this entry →

07

06 2009