Great Expectations

Today I met my first INSEAD colleagues that are not Romanians. Israeli, French Peruvian, Canadian, and French Romanian - those were the tags. It was a nice meeting, lovely people, just my expectations played their trick on me again, and I made a strange connection in my head.

This year I got my second knee surgery. I was so light about it, that I was almost looking forward, it was the thing to help me take a break, fix the pain in my knee, like i remembered it did the first time. Back then, I was 16. Now I'm 10 years older. The surgery was painful, recovery difficult, actually not yet completed, and my knee is not necessarily in better shape than before.

Seven years ago, I went to an international university in Germany. Meeting people from all over the world was, after having lived in Romania all my life, such an enthusing experience! Hey there, how are you, where're you from? Expecting the same tonight I showed myself I had not grown. I was stuck with the same expectations, while growing up we should learn to let them go and take things at face value.

I have no expectations for tomorrow. I'll go my way, embrace the world and experience everything with an open heart, and an empty bag to be filled with INSEAD. I'll be a tabula rasa. And no, that's not a kind of food.