PIF

Do you know what that means?  Paid.  In.  Full.

I paid off my first student loan today.  It was a tiny one that financed the Global Connections trip to India that I took with my MBA classmates in 2010 (see related blog posts here).  Before I took the trip, I remember wondering if I would regret taking out the loan.  I had gone on the Global Connections trip to China the previous spring, wasn't that enough?

Because no trip to India is complete w/o a picture in front of the Taj.

A couple of years and many loan payments later, I can say that I'm glad I took the trip.  India is a beautiful and complex country that I likely wouldn't have had the courage to visit on my own.  I'm so happy to have made the trip and experienced a little bit of the culture.  My only regret is that I skipped our bollywood dance class to finish and submit a seminar paper to one of my law school professors.

Now, with a year of working in Tokyo ahead of me, I'm even more grateful for the time I took to travel to China and India, to try to understand other business cultures, and to understand what it's like to be a true outsider.  I think I am just a little bit better prepared for a year in Japan because of it.  Thanks, McCombs.  The money was well spent.