Today was a very interesting day, especially because it started before anyone reading this blog was even awake. My alarm went of at 5:15am on a Saturday morning – far too early for my liking – but I got up, got dressed for a hot summer day (not my best decision), and headed to Central Park. The New York Road Runners were putting on the “Boomer’s Cystic Fibrosis Run to Breathe 4 mile”, and a group of MSBA students had volunteered to help out. Lorne and Jackie arrived in full-force, with the brave Emily, Kevin and Gabe in tow. After we all exchanged our “good mornings” and slight looks of excitement/misery, we checked into the volunteers’ tent and received our fluorescent traffic vests. We were then directed to the race amenities station where we prepared water cups for the runners at the finish line. During a short break, I may have fallen asleep…but I couldn’t sleep for long because things were only getting started.

“I would like to thank the runners for helping me realize how grateful I am for the people in my life that have made my summer unforgettable.”

Once the race had started, only 18 minutes went by before the first runner ran through the finish line and our water/snack station. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes after that, it dropped about 10 degrees and the skies opened up and absolutely poured on all of us. The race did not stop, however, and the runners kept running and the volunteers kept volunteering. I don’t want to say that it was a miserable 20 minutes, but it was a miserable 20 minutes as I stood soaking wet in my tank top and held a trash bag out in the middle of the road for runners to discard their cups and half eaten apples. Shortly before the entire park had to evacuate (the race officials had suddenly realized that it had been lightning in the park for the last 20 minutes) about 100 tired, sweaty and soaking wet runners thanked me for volunteering as they passed me by. The more and more thankful runners that went by, the more and more I realized how much I appreciated the fact that they appreciated me for doing even the smallest of tasks.

So as I reflect back on the day, I would like to thank the runners for helping me realize how grateful I am for the people in my life that have made my summer unforgettable. To all of the MSBA staff, I may never be able to articulate how much we appreciate what you do, but it means the world to us, and we are so grateful that you have invested so much time in this program and in us. You have given the Class of MSBA 2015 some of the world’s greatest friends, and you have helped us meet some of the best professionals in the business – our class cannot thank you enough. You all really are the greatest of people, and you will be sorely missed.