CBS 15th Alumni Reunion

When Columbia Business School’s invitation for our 15th Alumni Reunion on April 17 - 19, arrived earlier this year – I think the save the date was sent as early as November 2014- my husband and myself, both CBS 2000, thought: we have to go! And so we did.

Needless to say, our trip would have been much more pleasant if our luggage had made it with us, instead of, due to a short connection time and some delay in our inbound flight, getting stuck in Frankfurt. Being that bad enough, what really kill us, was that due of a series of misunderstandings – not to mention mismanagement of various subcontractors- it took us three days (yes three full days out of a four-day trip) to recover our luggage. Please note that I have consciously used the word recover, because they were not capable to deliver it in our hotel and we had to drive all the way up to profound New Jersey to pick it up, in person– but that is a totally different story. At least, we were lucky enough to get it a couple of ours before the Gala Dinner and arrive all dressed-up to The Pierre Hotel on time.

The truth is fifteen years is a long time. One sees everything: guys looking exactly the same as in the past, as if they had discover a miraculous potion to keep them immune to the ravages of time (Calique, this one is for you); others, who you recognize immediately, but look, much, much older – and you can only think: I hope they do not think the same about me! Women who look better that when we graduated -a healthy mix of more self-esteem and better clothes- and even those ones who look younger, although not prettier that back in those days (blessed or cursed by cosmetic surgery, you choose).

Independently of the diverse career path we choose, or we just happened to have (from Investment Banker to Real Estate developers, VC managers or old school industrial executives), and the diverse number of kids (and in some cases marriages and / or relationships) behind each of us, it is always a joy to look back on that short period of time in New York, were we all REALLY thought everything was possible.

One of the best sentence of the evening was that of Solomon, who explained, how, talking to her wife a couple of days earlier, she had asked him: “who do you think will be showing up?” and he had answered: “Only (or mostly – I do not remember the exact words) the happy guys”. And he has a point, because somehow, one need some kind of “bravery” to show up after so many years, and look, face to face, how time and fate have changed us, all of us, and how life has taught us that, yes, “everything was possible” but generally speaking, you get what you get. And that’s good so.