Arriving at Fontainebleau in January 2020 was a hassle for many of us who were eager to start the MBA journey at INSEAD. Paris had been on strike for almost a month as unions were protesting President Macron’s proposed pension reforms. The city was nearly paralysed, and few trains were running to Fontainebleau.

• Read more about In Search of the Silver Lining

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This article isn’t a cliché about how to look for opportunities in times of crisis. Neither is it about the sadness and problems arriving for such a critical moment in our history. It is a message of love and caring. It portrays tiny and simple examples of how you can embrace people around you, even if you just met them a couple of months ago.

• Read more about Making Lemonade

The first two months at INSEAD fulfilled all my expectations. It all looks so normal now for everybody to be here, but when you remember all the efforts you had to make before coming here to get admitted, it all pays off. Each person has a different unique, interesting and inspiring story… I love to hear each and every one of them! Fontainebleau

• Read more about And the INSEAD Journey Begins: Dreams Come True!

Pre-MBA Coming from an isolated country, I was overjoyed to receive multiple b-school offers. I selected INSEAD because of the large alumni network, diversity of thoughts and culture, and positive feedback from a high school friend who had graduated from INSEAD.

• Read more about So Far So Good

The happiness I felt when I got the acceptance call from INSEAD is a feeling I will never forget. But, after a first wave of excitement, and when it finally sunk in that the INSEAD dream was actually going to become a reality, my next reaction was to look at my calendar. I was eager to start bonding with the other students from my cohort, but there was one challenge: classes would only start in six months!

• Read more about The Pre-MBA Journey: Starting My INSEAD Experience Before Classes

When I walked off the plane five months ago in Singapore and headed straight for our launch day at INSEAD, I had no idea what was in store for me. I had been living in South Africa working as a Product Manager for Tencent.

• Read more about Lessons From An INSEAD MBA

I am sitting in front of the ocean in tropical weather, concluding my journey at INSEAD. It has been a truly life changing year.

• Read more about How INSEAD Students Grow Without Losing Their Essence

If long run averages are anything to go by, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a Fontainebleau to Paris car ride to last 45 minutes. But the moment you throw a national public transport strike into the mix, the travel time increases to an astronomical 2.5 hours. To many a bystander, this would qualify as a high barrier to entry. Hence, if said bystanders chose to cozy up in bed with a warm mug of cocoa, rather than brave the vagaries of Paris’ traffic network, they would probably not be judged too harshly by society.

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