It’s been almost a year since you last heard from me. You can bet that a lot has changed: the cohort I started with, '18J, has graduated; I’m the mother of an 8-month old boy, I’m doing an internship in Beijing this summer, and I’m about to move to Singapore for P4 with the '18Ds. Many students and prospective applicants have reached out to me about my experience being pregnant and being a mother at INSEAD, so here I will summarise a few thoughts on this topic: Being Pregnant

• Read more about Pregnancy, Parenthood and Relationships During INSEAD

November 14th, 2017 at the INSEAD campus was a day dedicated to an important part of the business school community, MBA Partners. A full day of pitches, reciprocity rings, networking, presentations and a cross-campus Panel discussion. The aura in the room was great – everyone was excited. The '18J Partners had started their P2 with their B-schoolers and were really starting to feel how fast time went at INSEAD.

• Read more about Takeaways from INSEAD’s Inaugural Cross-Campus MBA Partners’ Day

Being in a relationship with an MBA student (or B-schooler) is like one of those things when people say, “You have nothing to worry about,” but what they actually mean is, “Nothing can prepare you for this.” So simply the ‘smile and wave’ approach seems an easier course of action for many. And it’s no wonder.

• Read more about 3 Things I Learnt From My Relationship With an MBA Student

After hours of discussions and careful consideration, you’ve quit your job and will join your B-Schooler on a journey. “Do I stay or do I go?”—it’s a question that goes through everyone’s mind when their significant other gets accepted into a top business school.

• Read more about So You Quit Your Job to Live Life as a B-School Partner for the next year... Now What?

Dear 26-year-old Mona, First thing first, on day one of Orientation week at INSEAD, chill out. No one's going to bite you. Everyone is friendlier than they seem on that first day. Your B-schooler’s classmates, MBA partners, professors, visiting professionals and keynote speakers, are all looking for the same thing as you are: authentic connections. That cockiness is a front. That’s the big secret everyone will realize soon enough. So have the courage to be yourself, and don’t worry about the rest.

• Read more about Letter to My Younger “pre-B-school Partner” Self

Entering INSEAD as a 16J Partner, I viewed the coming year as an endless stream of potential paths, but one avenue I didn’t expect to go down was towards the start-up world. However, one can say that at INSEAD there are a growing number of Entrepreneur-spirited individuals. Personally, this journey started during the first few weeks when my B-schooler and I received an invitation to the INSEAD Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, hosted by the INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship. Why not, we said, lets have a go at this.

• Read more about Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur

By Naz Mirza, partner of Rashad Mirzayev, INSEAD MBA’14D Pamela Druckerman, Gina Ford and Lucy Atkins are just some of the major names that have somehow shaped the minds of so many parents all around the world: from Azerbaijan to Mexico, from France to Georgia, to China and so on.

• Read more about The INSEAD Moms