The longest day ever

This afternoon, the other Fellows and I trekked to Cambridge for a lunch meeting at the Program on Negotiation (known as PON) at Harvard Law School. Everyone seemed very interested in the Fellowship and our work, and offered to let us use the resources of PON, which was incredibly generous and flattering, considering how important this organization is within the field of conflict management.


After lunch, we spent some time going through the PON library, in awe of the resources available there—I could literally spend the rest of summer curled up in one of their large armchairs, just reading all of the academic literature. However my back-to-school fantasy was cut short when we were recruited us to help out with the setup for the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative Summer Learning Forum (known as HNII SLF). HNII SLF is a unique workshop-style conference that brings together practitioners from around the world and seeks to integrate the field of conflict management with the mindfulness of great wisdom traditions.

I helped out for most of the afternoon, but had to cut my volunteer time a little short as I rushed to my first Arabic class. Within the first five minutes of the class, I had come down from my Harvard high. The instructor moved at light speed and left the other two students and me consternated. I somehow managed to transform the beautiful Arabic script into the scrawl of an unusually talented chicken. I felt confused and defeated as I looked down on my notes and I left the class questioning whether or not I should continue with it at all. I rushed home to grab a bite to eat and prepare for a phone meeting with a representative of an organization in Thailand. At that point, I had been going non-stop for 12 hours and was exhausted.

However, the conversation went very well and I was reinvigorated with a sense of purpose as the possibility of a placement with the organization firmed up. Even though today felt like the longest day of my life, I went to bed with the feeling of immense satisfaction and fulfillment that only comes from a busy day of hard work and productivity.