Changes and constants

The two quarters that had remained went by really fast, but to my pleasure still managed to leave a mark on my memory thanks to some interesting courses. I managed to get the real cherries on top at the conclusion of my studies, learning, for example, about the economic history of 19th & 20th Century Europe from one of the world's leading economic historians and a great teacher named Joel Mokyr; about bargaining and negotiation from the veteran of the craft and textbook author Michael Roloff; I also studied corporate finance with Jesse Davis, who doesn't boast a name as famous as the aforementioned two but has enviable teaching abilities.

After the end of classes, however, it was Time and events were set in motion: My entire family arrived in Chicago, first to spend a week in and around the city itself as well as at my ceremonies, and afterwards to embark on a post-graduation road trip through the eastern United States. Senior Week, a series of events for graduating seniors, started for me, combined with showing my family around the city which had grown close to my heart during those four years.

And on Friday and Saturday, the coveted ceremonies finally took place: A big Commencement at the stadium (about 15,000 people attending overall), where the entire graduating class is „dispatched“ into the real world but degrees are not handed to students yet, and then the School of Communication Convocation, a smaller affair (merely in the upper hundreds of attendees), where students are called by named and receive their degrees from the dean. The former will be remembered for the scorching heat and the hilarious speech given by Seth Meyers, a famous comedian and Northwestern alumnus. At the latter, it was me who was granted the honor of introducing the guest speaker, president of Ogilvy & Mather in New York Adam Tucker, with a short speech.

Nothing else could follow but a time to say goodbye to the campus and the university, rent a car with the family, and set off on our road trip. We visited many places and cities, including the downtown of Detroit, the architectural marvel of Fallingwater, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City, and left with countless memories and photos.

 

The summer that followed was more marked by preparations for an independent life than by additional significant travel. The first journey abroad after returning from the U.S., in fact, lead me to London for a job interview, which had originally been scheduled for the 29th of April, a date at which I was obviously unable to show up in London so I had to postpone. They seemed to like me at the interview, so after coming back to Prague I went through another interview, this time over the phone and speaking with the leadership of a specific team within the company. There, I managed to leave a good impression as well, and as a result my hiking trip to the Romanian mountains with friends the following week was spiced up by me negotiating contract details over the phone while jumping over streams and climbing cliffs.

It had all been still sinking in at the time, but as September approached, the contours of the new realities grew clearer and clearer, e-mails and phone calls flew back and forth, and before I knew it, I found myself at the offices of the Dentsu Aegis Group in London, specifically in Amnet, a company that specializes on programmatic trading and optimization of online advertising for its clients. I’m at the start of my third week in this job and I’m very happy so far. So, changes? Once again, I find myself in a new country, settling in, excited about the beginning of a new adventure. And constants? Yet again I have to go through paperwork and errands, open a bank account, get a government insurance number, and the like. But it’s all just a small price for how far I’ve gotten in the last few years, and how exciting of a journey I still have ahead of me.