(Disclaimer: this post is NOT meant to offend anyone. It is not meant to bash on ANY religion or lack thereof, and I basically consider it to be NON-religious. I feel the thoughts I’ve presented are not exclusive to any religion or lack of religion. They are simply meant to be thought-provoking, so please… no arguments on my blog, only comments. Thanks!)

I just watched the movie Revolutionary Road, with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (and no, it’s nothing like Titanic). It’s about a married couple in the 1950’s that has it in their head that they’re “different”, that they’re not going to become just like the typical suburban family with two kids and a white picket fence. Yet they wake up one day to realize that that’s exactly what they’ve unintentionally become.

I really liked this movie, and I recommend it, but be forewarned - it is somewhat depressing. That’s all I’ll say, I don’t want to give away the ending… or any of the movie, really, because it isn’t just about the ending. The movie itself is all about the journey this family is on. You should definitely watch it for yourself, but I think I can talk about the premise behind it without really giving any of it away.

I loved how thought-provoking this movie was. It really makes you think about life and the meaning behind it. Or rather, the meaning we give to it. Countless people, myself included, generally have had this idea that there is a “meaning of life”. A lot of people seek that in religion or in this man called Jesus. Other people seek it in the ideas of Buddhism or enlightment. Others seek it in humanity via the idea of humanism. Still others disregard it and simply live life, not really seeking any meaning to it at all. But what is it? Is there one meaning to life?

I was thinking about all of this (yes, I know - how deep and/or cliche can you get, right? pondering the meaning of life?) and started wondering… maybe there just is no meaning to life. Or maybe life is its own meaning. Have I lost you yet?

Does God exist? I’m not going to claim by any means to have the market cornered on that one. I don’t know that any healthy, sane, truly spiritual person really would. Some believe it because they choose to, but as we all know, there is no definitive proof. At least none that is enough to convince those staunch atheists out there. But let’s say he does. I’m also not going to claim to know his agenda or what’s on his mind. Some Christians would disagree with me, but I’m going to put out the idea that maybe it’s not entirely relevant. Maybe, just maybe, God does exist, and he did create us… he did create the world we are in. But what if he left the meaning up to us?

Christian or non-Christian, atheist or agnostic, Buddhist or humanist, what do YOU believe the meaning of life is? What goal do you ultimately pursue? What are you trying to attain with your life? Maybe that’s the whole point of this. Maybe we each have different meanings to our lives. What if the point is… not to search for the meaning of life, but to create it? Here’s what we have - a magnificent world (however it got here) filled with human beings, animals, plants, and all the things that have been created or sprouted up in-between. Now - what are we going to do with it? We’ve each been given a life - is it possible that there is no definitive purpose for it? Maybe the point is simply to take what we have in front of us - all the possibilities that are out there (and no matter what you say, I believe that there are exponential possibilities for every life) and do what YOU want with it. No right, no wrong (and by that I don’t mean the moral definition of right and wrong), no good, no bad, no better, no worse… just find what you want and do it. What if God is sitting up there watching just to see what people do with all the possibilities they have, and he’s perplexed by all of the people spending so much time trying to figure out why they’re here or what the right thing to do with their life is? What if he just wants them to create their own meaning with it? Or… what if there’s simply no God at all? (I’m still here, I promise lightning didn’t strike me after typing that last question.)

In the words of Switchfoot - it’s your life… are you who you want to be?

Ok, so I know that I didn’t quite follow through on my promise and continue my story of Memorial Day weekend. But my boyfriend, Ricky - a blogging fanatic - has recounted pretty much the whole thing on his own blog. And since I’ve had a few busy weekends and some deadlines at work lately, rather than tell the whole thing over myself - this time I will just be a slacker and point you to his blogs about the trip, if you’d like to know the rest of the story:

Surprise Weekend Getaway: Part 1

Surprise Weekend Getaway: Part 2

Surprise Weekend Getaway: Part 3

And of course I just realized that he never did a Part 4, talking about our trip to Cedar Point, the actual highlight of the trip. Oh well… there are always the pictures.

I bet you were hoping for part 2 of my Memorial Day weekend trip, right? Well, you’ll get it - eventually. Just not right now. Patience, my dear readers. This week my mind is elsewhere.

I’ve had a request to talk about my MBA experience. (Hi Tom!) Well, as of yet - it’s only a pre-MBA experience. But I can talk about that. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you probably remember a couple of years ago when I said I had decided to go to grad school to get my MBA. Well, a trip to Florida, a short-term romance, and lack of funds kind of deterred all of that for a while. But after some conversations with co-workers and my own decision that I needed more direction and goals in my life, I have decided to pursue this effort once again.

To me, the most logical choice for which school to go to to obtain my graduate degree in business administration is IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, for the uninformed). This is where I got my undergraduate degree. There are a few reasons why I say it is the logical choice for me. One, is just that - it’s where I obtained my undergrad. I also worked there, and I am very comfortable and familiar with the school and the way they do things. Two, is that the degree I would end up getting would be from Indiana University. My undergrad is from Purdue. How cool would that be, to have a degree from both schools? Silly reason, maybe. I do have a better one. Obviously, IU is a great school anyway, but then there’s the fact that the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University is ranked #22 in the country among business schools for an MBA. Sure, it’s not Harvard or Yale or anything, but that’s not a bad ranking for a school in Indiana. So that’s why I’m trying to get accepted into their evening MBA program.

So, there are quite a few things I need to get accepted into this program. One is a good undergrad record and GPA. Check. My undergrad GPA at IUPUI was a 3.8. Not too shabby, huh? Number two is a couple of recommendation letters from people that can vouch for me and why I should be accepted into this program. I’ve got good friends and business contacts - no problem. I sent in my resume, which shows that I have had a few years of full-time experience in the working world, not only in I.T. after I received my undergrad, but also some years as an administrative assistant and also in the banking industry.

I’ve also submitted an essay about why I want to get into this program, as well as registered for a prerequisite class online this summer. There are actually two prerequisite classes I need - statistics and accounting - but if I can manage to make it into the fall semester, I can bypass the statistics class. I took three statistics classes as part of my undergrad program, and I aced them all.

Here’s the thing. The usual deadline for having everything in for the fall semester is April 15. Obviously, we are way past that. But they have had low enrollment this year, and have extended the deadline until June 30 or whenever the classes fill up. The evening MBA program has a group that will be meeting in Carmel, which is where I work. This would be much closer than the group that will be meeting downtown. However, the Carmel group only starts up in the fall semester, not spring. So there’s that. Also - if I don’t make it in for fall - I will have to take the statistics prereq as my undergrad classes will be over 5 years ago and will not qualify. So you can see why it is kind of important for me to get in for the fall.

I have been in contact with someone from the admissions office, and she tells me that they do have a few spots left in Carmel for fall, so if I get accepted, I should be fine in getting a spot. What do they still need from me to get accepted? The clincher - the GMAT. The GMAT (or Graduate Management Admissions Test) is a required part of getting into the program as well. I am registered to take it this Saturday, May 30. So - for the rest of this week, studying I will be. I’ve studied some and gotten decent scores on practice tests, but this test covers math skills that I acquired in high school and early college. Meaning - skills I’ve pretty much lost since then. And trying to re-learn all of that in a short period of time is not easy. But try I will.

So there’s where I’m at. The GMAT is this Saturday, and my score on that is probably my biggest determining factor to whether I’m admitted into the program or not. The average for students in this program is 620, and I was able to get a 660 on one of the practice tests I took, so let’s hope I get around that on the real test. I’ll keep you updated… until then - wish me luck!