On this day in 2005 …

Earlier this afternoon when I jogged through the main campus at UNC, I realized that it was on this day last year that I came to Chapel Hill for the first time. I had my class visit, lunch, tour, and admissions interview. It was my first time at Chapel Hill and on the UNC campus, where I took the above picture. I sat in on the same accounting class that I am taking now. During the lecture, the professor talked about the AOL/Time Warner merger and he kept referring to the CEO of the parent company I worked for as Alan Parsons. I had to exercise great restraint to keep from raising my hand to correct him. All that happened one year ago today.

And what a year it’s been. In the next twelve months, I got into Kenan-Flagler, interviewed at two other schools, got rejected by one, accepted by the other, and had to wait until literally the last minute for Darden to officially reject me from its wait list. I quit my job, went to Key West for an incredible wedding, came down to Kenan-Flagler for pre-MBA workshop, moved my possessions to Chapel Hill, and sold the condo. I went with my classmates to Charlotte and New York to visit investment banks and to Omaha to meet Warren Buffett. On the spiritual front, I increasingly felt God telling me to trust Him and to place my hope in His plans rather than in the daily “goods” and “bads” that come my way.

While many things change, others remain the same. In yesterday’s accounting class we did the same lecture that I sat in on a year ago, except the professor now presents his material with Power Point slides. He once again identified the Time Warner CEO as Alan Parsons. Only this time, he had a former Time Warner employee sitting in the second row who raised his hand to correct him.