The last few months have reminded me again that Wharton is a place where dreams come true. Here we channel our inner rock stars onstage at the Battle of the Bands, walk the catwalk as Fashion Show models, and moonlight as champion boxers at Fight Night or stand up comedians at the Comedy Club Show. In my case, I realized my dream of being a weekly newspaper columnist. (Incidentally, I am… writing a column about writing columns. How meta is that?)
Why do I write? I have hoped to challenge my classmates to see things from another angle. It's good for us to take a step back and laugh or marvel at what a strange/ridiculous/wonderful place the Wharton bubble is! I wanted students here to reconsider and revisit topics familiar to the Wharton environment, hopefully in a way that makes Wharton a better place. I have always tried to choose topics that will create a dialogue (whether or not people agree with my opinion), covering themes that I have observed as aspects of Wharton life that deserve a second look. A competitive school like Wharton is certainly one unique environment with intriguing interpersonal dynamics.
One of the most rewarding aspects of writing this column has been seeing others' reactions to what I've written. I've chosen topics that I think people want to discuss but that don't naturally come up in conversation. Months later, the article I wrote on dating keeps popping up! Girls emphasized to me their confusion over how to know when they are indeed on a date. One second year observed that Wharton student dating behavior can be hard to predict or understand because "sometimes we're serious and sometimes we act like we're at the prom."
An unexpected result of sharing my reflections on Wharton life was that many of my non-business school friends read my columns, drawing conclusions about life at business school. To many, business school seems like an escape hatch from work life. Everyone comments on how MBAs just party all the time, but in reality we only post pictures of ourselves on Facebook vacationing to exotic locales and looking good at dressy events. Nobody posts pictures of themselves studying bleary-eyed at night and struggling through exams, or anxiously preparing for job interviews. I felt compelled to set the record straight; (most) MBAs both work hard and play hard.
Writing this weekly column was a stretch activity. (For the record, it did take lots of time and effort, but I love to write!) I might like to think that I don't care what others think as I shout my opinions from the rooftop, but we are all still human and we want and enjoy approval and affirmation from others. You worry that no one is reading, and then you worry that people are reading, haha. In all honesty, I was pretty anxious when my strongly worded article on underappreciated organizers and Wharton students' shenanigans was published. But not anxious enough to not publish it. I do regret giving off any impression that I think organizers are saints who are totally selfless – a more balanced approach might have been more effective, rather than perhaps unintentionally making organizing sound like a chore. If I were to write it again, I would have mentioned that organizers do their thing because they enjoy it, and that it is not all completely altruistic. Helping organize the Battle of the Bands my first year was undoubtedly one of the most rewarding things I did that year.
Sure, some organizers probably do take advantage of their positions for personal gain or enjoy a power trip, but those who don't organize will not understand how much time and effort it takes to organize until they try it themselves. We have the most compassion when we understand what it is like to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. The rewarding aspect of running an event can start to wane when fellow classmates adopt an angry consumer mindset. The Follies' writers' spoof of my column, titled, "From Follies, with Love," poked fun at how I tell classmates that business school is about "not being mean to club organizers even though they are going to strip clubs with your membership money." I laughed, because you know – I can't prove that they're not. But I stand firm by my official party stance that "mean people suck." :)
Through this experience I have realized that what I write can be read by someone else with a totally different meaning than what I had intended for it. As much as I encourage others to understand other points of view, like in my column on 360 feedback sessions, I have learned that I can't anticipate how every single other person will read what I've written. It's also impossible to predict how others will read in between the lines and infer things I didn't say from what I did indeed say. I only get 1000 words to write my opinion in, and I wouldn't expect readers in this day and age to give me any more of their time. At the end of the day, I can only write with my own voice and stand by what I've said.
While it might seem like a very individual endeavor, writing this column took a small village. I must thank the handful of friends who let me bounce ideas off of them and gave up their time to give feedback for some articles before they ran. Big thanks also to everyone who ever sent me an encouraging note in response to my columns, it always made my day! Each article had a message, lighthearted or serious, and I found it important to always close with a takeaway. You don't want people to get to the end of the article and feel like they've wasted their time, or they don't know what the point was. Being a weekly newspaper columnist has been one of the most memorable aspects of my time here, and every piece I've written has been To Wharton, with Love.
Pauline Wu is a 2nd year marketing major and Lauder Japanese track student. She thanks readers for humoring her weekly "it's my column, and I'll write what I want to." Her column, To Wharton, With Love, has appeared weekly in The Wharton Journal.
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