The first term is over and my head is still spinning. My friends and my family tell me to chill, but it is not easy to go from 1000 to 10 in just a couple of days.

As I am trying to enjoy the first 4 days away from the MBA since the beginning of the program, I am starting to realize what have been my last 2 months.

It is difficult to express and summarize all sensations and emotions that I have felt, but if I play a word association game regarding the MBA, the words would be something like Intense, Challenging and sometimes Overwhelming!

I have to admit that before joining the program, when I spoke with MBA graduates, all of them advised me regarding the heavy workload of a MBA program, but I always gave them a discount. I always though they were exaggerating and that with my experience I wouldn't feel the same. I was so wrong!

It has been an extraordinary experience involving much more than developing my business skills. The challenge of working in a flat hierarchy with others MBA students with different backgrounds, different cultures and different mindsets is the ultimate leadership preparation and I am loving it.

Each student has his own personal improvements roadmap and mine it's very ambitious, but I feel that I am in the right place at the right time and in the right program to achieve it.

The 2nd term, which is considered the most difficult in MBA’s programs, will start next Wednesday and the complete absence of free time with a roller-coaster of experiences will be my daily life, but I am really confident that when the term is over and I look back, I will feel the same rewarding sensation that I am feeling today!

"Welcome to a life changing experience" advised Belen, The Lisbon MBA's executive director. Little did we know then the extent of the concept, as we happily nodded with the exciting perspective.

Today we understand better, although not fully yet. A "lifetime" has passed in a month and we are now fully immersed, and sure enough... change has begun! Our ideas are provoked, our calendar is crammed, our mental elasticity is stretched in every direction and our emotional intelligence is given a thorough test and upgrade.

Our team's diverse background is true motivation and a source for challenging our predefined assumptions and beliefs. This is without a doubt a valuable asset of our school - we learn through academic core subjects and also from the cultural differences in class coming from Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US, Belgium, Poland, India and Portugal.

Bring on Finance, Ops, Strategy, Accounting, Boston and MIT, internships and international labs, Friday Forums and personal limits pushing, elective courses, exams, mid-terms and cases after cases... and certainly, bring on the student sharing sessions, social Sundays, cold beer chats and new friends!

By now we're sitting tight, seat belts fastened, books and minds open and already savoring an incredible ride... a life changing incredible ride!

That's how I fell today, because a new course of The Lisbon MBA has started...
It's strange because I finished my program only less than 2 weeks and I fell nostalgic about the incredible journey that the new students are about to begin.
The best of everything for them and for the program and thank you for one of the best years of my life.