Every year at HBS, students diligently meet with their learning teams each morning before class... for about 4 weeks, until they grow annoyed at having to wake up extra early, and the learning teams disband.
Well, mine didn't. I got lucky. We still meet every morning. One kid dropped out, but the rest of us are morning people. You can probably count on one hand how many teams are still active, and the class started with ~120.
Now the year's wrapping up, and I'm seeing that this has been about more than case preparation. When you go through something that's intense with someone, you rely on them, and you refuse to let each other down, you're bonded to that person for life, like it or not. There were over a dozen times this year where I was only able to make a meaningful contribution to my section's discussion because of the hour I spent with my learning team down in the school's grill. In 20 years, if I get a call from one of these guys, and I'm in a position to help them, how could I ever say no?
In light of this connection that's formed over the year, we've been debating what sort of ceremony we should end our streak of mornings with. We went in on a group purchase (embroidered sweatshirts, honoring Joe, one of our most valuable contributors), but I also thought it'd be fun to spend time together outside of the context of case preparation. So we all went to a Sox game together. For three members, it was their first time at a baseball game. We had a blast, reminiscing about the year and talking about baseball.
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