I originally posted this blog on my Kelley blog, but I thought it was worth sharing here as well. Enjoy! I could use this blog entry to write about all of the sights we saw in Russia, or about the business meetings that we attended, and I might do that soon too. But honestly, the entire experience of the trip had such an impact on me as a person that I'd like to talk about that first. It had an effect on me emotionally, personally, and professionally, and there are quite a few thoughts swirling around in my head about that now upon returning. One big reason I took the Emerging Economies: Russia class is because I love traveling and learning about and experiencing other cultures, and I saw this as one of the few opportunities I might have to learn about and visit Russia in this capacity. And now, especially after taking the trip and having that experience, I find it disappointing that more MBA students in our program weren't willing to do the same. Yes, it's a lot of money. But the trip and class as a whole really costs no more than a normal part-time MBA semester of credit hours here at Kelley. So, even if you have to take only this class one semester in order to pay for it, do it! It is well worth the expense many times over. And plus, there are also other ways to pay for it. Kelley offered a partial scholarship for it. I know that one of the other students that went used his work bonus to help pay for it, and I did that as well. But even if you think it's not affordable, there is always a way and I guarantee that if you make the effort to find it, it will be worth it in the end. The eight weeks in this class leading up to the trip were quite valuable. I really enjoyed taking the time to learn all about Russia - its culture, politics, food, history, etc - before visiting there. It made the actual trip and being there so much more valuable and meaningful. When we were ready to leave, we already had an idea of what Russia was like in our heads - now it was just time to experience it for ourselves. What I got out of the trip exceeded my highest expectations. I didn't really have too many expectations going in, honestly - I just tried to be open and take in whatever happened, which I think is the best way to go about it. Maybe it was just that attitude that caused me to feel differently than I might have thought that I would. One of the first things I felt the first few days of the trip was a sense of awe. I never traveled very much or very far in my childhood and even though I have been to a few different countries now as an adult, it was still kind of huge to me that I was in Russia. And on top of that, I was traveling with a group of successful adults and meeting with executives at huge multinational companies. It made my head spin just a bit. Once I adjusted to that feeling and accepted that yes, I was really there, I got quite a bit out of both the business meetings as well as the time spent out with people, both my fellow travelers as well as people we were meeting in Russia. The business meetings were very valuable and rewarding because we were getting to see the reality of doing business in Russia, what we had been researching for weeks. We saw both the perspectives of U.S. firms, some of which had been in Russia for quite a long time, as well as from Russian companies, both large ones and start-ups. It gave us a much more real sense of how things are accomplished there. It was also a really nice experience to meet the people that we had put ourselves in touch with in order to set up our meetings. That had been part of our challenges and preparation in the class leading up to the trip, to set up business meetings on our own in Russia to get information for our team projects. Spending time with those in our group and meeting new people in Russia was every bit as rewarding as well. Because the MBA program is part-time and most of the students either work full-time already or are full-time students in another program along with the MBA (we had both an MD/MBA and a JD/MBA along with us), sometimes that can make it hard to really spend time connecting with your fellow students. But there is no better way to connect than to go off to a foreign country with some of them for a few days! We all truly got to know each other very well and honestly, we really got along famously. I hope to continue to stay in touch with each and every one of the people on this trip and count them as friends for a very long time. I think that all of my fellow students that went on this trip would agree that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to both our professor, Marjorie Lyles, as well as our executive-in-residence for the class, Nate Feltman. You can tell that Prof. Lyles loves both doing work internationally as well as sharing her love of that with students. She truly has a passion for that which becomes very clear when you are on the trip experiencing it with her. Her fondness for her students and her pride in their dedication to the class becomes very evident and was a huge encouragement and support to us. And Nate brought exactly what we needed to our time in Russia. He has spent a few years over there as legal counsel and was just the link we needed to Russia. His love for the country is very evident as well and added so much to our trip. He was our translator and guide at times as well as friend. You tend to have professors and executives or professionals that are involved throughout every step of earning an MBA, but there are only usually a select few that end up being sought out as true mentors. I think Prof. Lyles and Nate should be warned that they have the potential to become that for any one of the eight of us students that visited Russia with them. I think that I could potentially say that all of us fell in love with Russia on this trip. The sights, meetings, people, experiences... all of it was enough to make all of us want to return at some point. A phrase that one of the executives in one of our meetings used that keeps coming back to me is "international American". I believe that is what is true about each of us on the trip that sparked us to go - a passion for learning more about other cultures and nations and wanting to make the world seem a bit smaller. I really hope that in our experience and in our sharing of it with others that we can prompt them to do the same and be international Americans as well.

Well, I was planning on updating my blog design, and I started working on it and decided that 1) I actually kind of like this design and really didn't find one I like much better at the moment and 2) I don't really have time to work on a new design for it anyway, at least not the time I'd like to put into it. The holidays continue to be relatively busy, and school will be starting up again in a little over a week. Oh, and just in case you missed it and were wondering (I'm sure you were), I got an A- in Marketing and a B in Operations Management, my two classes last semester. Next semester I am taking three classes: Leadership & Ethics in the Business Environment, Applied Marketing Research, and Emerging Economies. The Leadership class is my last core class, I believe. There was another one, an international studies one, but I believe since I am taking the Emerging Economies course and it includes international studies, that I don't have to take that one. The Applied Marketing Research class is online, one reason I picked it up since I already am taking two other classes and this one brings me up to 9 credit hours for the semester - yikes! And then, the Emerging Economies class, of course, as I have already talked about on Twitter and Facebook, will take me to... Russia! It is basically a study of the Russian economy and includes a trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow over spring break. So I get to visit this beautiful place, among others: I'm VERY excited, as this will be my first trip overseas. Considering how little travel I really did growing up, I found it funny that when my professor was asking us if we would need our passports any time in the next few months (she was going to collect them to send to an agency to submit to get our visas), I actually had to say YES, I would need it - for the trip to Aruba I took earlier this month. It seems to becoming obvious to myself as well as everyone that I LOVE to travel as often as possible. I'm starting to get teased about how often I do, actually, by jealou--I mean, by friends and co-workers. ;) Ricky and I are constantly looking for an opportunity to get out of town. I already have three sets of airline tickets purchased for trips in 2011! On that note, I'd like to make my readers aware of a couple of things. Number one, I think I'm going to ditch the "travelatte" blog. It's just not really getting a following, and as this blog (my normal one) already HAS a following, I'm just going to post any travel stuff on here since I don't really have the time to keep up with two anyway. So if you get tired of it, well too bad, I guess. You'll know where I'm going whether you like it or not. :) Also, I'm taking down the Photos page, which most of you probably didn't even realize existed. All it really is is a feed of my Picasa photos, and I don't use Picasa anymore, so it wouldn't be getting updated anyway. But I'll probably incorporate a link to my Flickr page in here somewhere soon. And one more thing - I'm closing my public Twitter account. I don't want/need two accounts, and as I rarely use the @sherylh96 one, I'm just going to "shut it down". I may keep the account technically there as I've used that username for so long, I'd like to make sure it's mine on Twitter, but I will not likely be using it anymore. I will, however, continue to use my private Twitter account, @sherylhugill. And I will accept your follow request... if I like you. So that's that. Now, here is the latest scoop. My update, year in review, year-end blog post, whatever you would like to call it. I'm not really one to sit looking back too much, so I'm not sure how much I can reminisce about 2010, really. It had plenty of great travel, not surprisingly, and may possibly be considered my "coming out" as a self-confessed travel geek. I mean, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York in 3 weekends? I also got my tropical islands in, visiting both Hawaii and Aruba this year. I broke my own record for number of times I've flown in a year, topping out at 5, I believe. (Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, Phoenix, and Aruba, in case you were wondering.) Aside from travel, I also completed my first full year in grad school. I am now halfway through my MBA program - scheduled graduation is in May 2012, so I still have some time to go. Ricky and I have no been together for 2 years. Our "anniversary" is pretty easy to remember, as our first date was sometime between Christmas and New Year's 2008 - on the 29th, I believe. Our second date (and first kiss at midnight!) was New Year's Eve, so we tend to celebrate it then. Moving in together has gone relatively well, most of the time. I blame him for my recently developed initiation this year into the cult of Apple. I can claim I had an iPhone before meeting him, but who knew I would also end up using a MacBook Pro, iPad, and Apple TV? Yeah, we are an Apple couple for sure. I'm looking forward to 2011 and seeing what it holds. 2010 has required some adjustments, and some are still being made. But life is good. I hope yours is too. I'm excited for the plans I am already making for 2011, whether it's classes, new opportunities, or travel plans. I'm sure it will be a journey worth taking. Happy New Year as you ring in yours, and may 2011 be your best year yet!

So being the time of year it is, I have noticed more and more people posting on Twitter or Facebook or their blogs what they are thankful for. While there are definitely things/people/etc that I am very thankful for, I think I'm also going to use this opportunity to just be totally honest about what things have been like for me lately. I've hinted at it to people, and even expressed it to some, but just for my own form of therapy, I thought I would explain it a bit. Everyone knows that my dad passed away in March of this year, and if you read my blog or keep up with me regularly, you know a lot of the other things that have happened in my life this year. Shortly before my dad passed away, I had decided to go back to grad school at the IU Kelley School of Business to get my MBA. Following that decision came a long process that included studying for the GMAT, getting letters of recommendation, writing an essay, and taking prerequisite classes, among other things. I continued this process after my dad died because, well, it was a decision I made and something that I wanted for myself, so there was really no question about following through with it. So I submitted everything, took the GMAT and got a good score, took my prereq, and got into the program. School started in August, and I have been on the journey since then. It has honestly been an up and down road the last few months. First of all, grad school is hard. Maybe not for everyone, but for me it is pretty hard at times. If the work isn't hard, keeping up with all of the work is. I have struggled at times to easily understand the topics we have studied so far. I have had no real business training other than on the job from being in a professional IT (information technology) environment. Things like accounting (other than the short course I had in high school) and economics (other than what I remember from college stats classes) are pretty foreign to me. And a lot of the time, well, I've felt pretty dumb. And some days, this feeling carries over into work too, when I'm facing some new task that involves code that I'm unfamiliar with or functionality that I don't know how to tackle.  This all leads to a lot of feelings of not being good enough, whether it is with work, school, relationships, or other areas of my life. Now - combine those feelings with the fact that along with the death of my dad and the stress of work and school, I tend to be a stress eater. Sweets are my drug of choice a lot of times when it comes to looking for a pick-me-up. This has led to gaining a few extra pounds that I really don't want. So of course that doesn't help with those self-worth issues any. Only a few close friends really know how much of a struggle this has been for me. And while advice is great, I honestly already know most of the advice. I know my self-worth, I really do. I know that I'm pretty, that I'm smart, that I will get through school and get my MBA, and that I will even lose those pounds if I really want to. But right now - it's very hard to get that from my head to my heart. Struggling to feel something emotionally where you just don't can be a very crippling thing, and a very difficult thing to understand, especially from the viewpoint of those that love and care about the person struggling with this issue. And every little small thing that somehow feeds (or even seems to feed) the lie can feel like a complete emotional attack. So, here's my admission. These self-worth issues combined with grief have made close, trusted friends suggest that seeking counseling might not be a bad idea, so I've decided to check it out via CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) at IUPUI. It's a minimal fee service that IUPUI offers their students. And I have to admit that having someone to talk to about some of these things, a third party, can't hurt. So what does all of this have to do with Thanksgiving and being thankful? Well, as I've basically said many times now, it's been a rough year. I don't like admitting that, and I don't like admitting that I need help. But I'm not sure what my year might have looked like without support from friends, for which I'm so grateful. Thank you, Ricky, gRegor, Seren, and Maurice, for being among the ones who know me best and still love me without fail. And thank you to that special volunteer at Outreach who let me know that I'm not alone, that I'm normal, and that grief can take years to overcome. I'm blessed to have so many great people in my life. I'm also thankful that there have been a lot of wonderful things in my life this year as well. I've been able to achieve some pretty lofty goals and that fact makes me know that I can do anything I set my mind to. In addition to getting into grad school and working towards my MBA, I've also managed to travel a lot this year and visit some new places (including Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua) as well as getting the next car I wanted, a 2005 Mini Cooper convertible.  Even though sometimes I can't really feel it, I know I have accomplished a lot in the midst of a hard year. I know I'm facing some difficult holidays coming up, but there are things to celebrate this year as well.  And I've realized that it's okay to accept how I feel and to acknowledge that I'm not always capable of living up to expectations, especially my own.  But what I have done and what I am is still perfectly as it should be, even if there's room for improvement (and there always is).  And there will always be those out there to love me and remind me of that, if I choose to let them.

A blog post about blogging.  Novel idea, right?  I've been blogging since - well, according to my Xanga page - October 2001.  Next Tuesday is apparently my 8-year bloggiversary.  Yay me!  So yes, I started blogging on Xanga, and later eventually moved to my own site, which you see before you now.  The look of it has changed some over the years, but I am still here.  Where else would I be?  I'm pretty sure there is no other Sheryl Hugill out there to try to steal this domain name from me... Besides my own personal blog, I have also been a blogger for other websites as well.  In 2006 and 2007, I was a blogger for a local magazine that used to be called INtake Weekly.  INtake has since become Indy.com (sadly leaving behind their Blog Squad), and now is a part of Metromix.  And now, I'm excited to add another entry to my blog portfolio... you're looking at the newest "BizBlogger" for the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI! The Kelley School of Business showcases their newest blog entries on their main page, found at kelley.iupui.edu.  The link to the "BizBlog" itself can be found at bizblog.kelley.iupui.edu or by clicking on "More Entries" from the BizBlog section on the main Kelley page.  Found here are blogs by several different types of people involved with Kelley, including undergraduate students, alumni, advisors, and of course (like me) graduate students.  If you go to the main BizBlog page and click on Graduate Students, you'll see my name listed there on the left.  No posts yet, but I currently have one waiting for moderation. I'm very excited to be blogging for the Kelley School of Business.  I know the MBA program will be a challenge, and I'm looking forward to sharing my experience there.  Interestingly enough, my blog here is what got me the job... someone from Kelley contacted me while I was in the process of preparing for the GMAT and applying to the program, after having seen my post here about that process.  She wanted to talk to me to find out about my experience with the application process, and this later led to my invitation to blog for the school. What a great opportunity, and a great way to celebrate my "bloggiversary"... with a new blogging challenge. UPDATE: My first blog at Kelley has been posted/moderated now.  I think they have changed around the graduate students blogs, as mine is listed right now under "Evening MBA Experience".  Here's a link to my first post.

So today I had a pretty crummy day. It started with a toothache that just got increasingly worse as the day went on. Various things at work got frustrating. And then I found out that I did pretty bad on the quiz that I took in my accounting class last night. The same quiz that I studied for Friday night, most of Sunday afternoon, and late into Sunday night as well. Typical day, in a way, basically the culmination of a lot of feelings I've had lately. See, lately I've been struggling with feeling like kind of a big failure. At work, at school, at home, in relationships, even just as a person. Same old feelings - I'm not smart enough, don't work hard enough, not a good enough friend, even that my apartment isn't as clean or as well-decorated as it should be. It just seems like lately every piece of feedback I get regarding, well, everything, is negative. Or at least it's mostly the negative feedback that I seem to be able to see right now. So as today continued to get progressively worse - these negative things started to affect me less somehow. Maybe it was just because my day was pretty crummy already, but I started to see some of the negative things as just feedback. Learning experiences. And then I started to look at my failures in a different way. Like my accounting quiz - sure, I failed it. But I wouldn't have if I hadn't tried. If I hadn't decided to get my MBA, if I hadn't applied and gotten accepted to the MBA program at IUPUI, I wouldn't have failed this quiz. So instead of being evidence that I was a failure, what it meant was that I hadn't been afraid to fail. If I had stayed in my comfort zone and never gone back to school and instead let fear of failure keep me from it, it would never have happened. That was a really cool thing to me, as I've always been one to not want fear of failure to keep me from living my life and my dreams. I didn't lose anything from it - my quiz grade wasn't bad enough to keep me from passing my class, I can bring my grade up. So all it really was was a bump along the way. And as for my self-confidence and self-worth issues lately... I got to thinking about those and discussing them with a friend today. See, the thing is - I've known deep down from a young age (probably about 4 years old when my parents were already bragging about my reading ability to people) that I'm pretty smart and capable. And I think my self worth issues come more from me holding myself to a really high standard than really thinking that I'm worthless. But here's the thing... I've been used to being able to get through my world and what I do with relative ease. I've never had problems in school or in life, really... I'm smart and capable and I have always taken on things that I can handle. But now, here I am. This year has been full of a lot of changes, a lot of new things. A new job. A new boyfriend. Starting graduate school. And losing my father. And I've come to the conclusion that a part of my struggle with self-confidence and self-worth lately is really just a part of me growing. I'm taking on new things, bigger things, and they're not always as easy as some of the other things have been. Sure, I can handle these new, bigger things too, they're just more outside of my box and I have to learn what it's like to take them on. It's not always easy, and I will likely fail along the way. And yeah, it's definitely enough to shake one's confidence momentarily. But it also helps me grow. I mean... Getting a graduate degree is not as easy as getting an undergrad. And the job I have now is not as easy as the jobs I have had in the past. And living life without a dad is not as easy as living life with one. A phrase that I remember from my days in Beyond Your Best is about being "out on the skinny branches". It basically just means getting outside of your comfort zone and putting yourself out there. Not being afraid to fail. Letting yourself fail in order to grow. Taking on new things that are harder than the things you've done in the past. Not just staying in the same place or in the place that is comfortable. And that's what I want to do - grow. Mentally, emotionally, and as a person. So - be it things that I have chosen to change or things that I have no control over that have yet forced me to grow... here's to failure, as a result of being out on the "skinny branches".

And oddly enough, I'm putting off homework to write this blog post. I figured that I had yet to officially post an update on the status of my application to the MBA program at IUPUI, so while I'm being a blogging fiend I figured I'd do that. So here it is... I got accepted! I took the GMAT and after a few nights of hardcore studying, I ended up with a score of 650, which is pretty decent. It's apparently higher than the average of students entering the evening MBA program at IUPUI, apparently, which their website states is 620. So I was pretty pleased. And *very glad* to be done with the test. And yes, I have been accepted to the evening MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI. Yay me! So right now I'm taking a summer accounting class online that is a prerequisite for the MBA program, which starts next month. Classes start August 26, and orientation is August 24 and 25th. I'm really looking forward to starting school again. I like being a student, plus I'm looking forward to meeting new classmates. I will have classes on Monday and Wednesday nights at the Community Life & Learning Center in Carmel. For the next. three. years. What am I getting myself into?? Oh well... So, wish me luck as I embark on the next leg of my academic journey. I look forward to tackling all of the ups and downs that I know it will present.