Park Perspective: A Breaking Point—and a Breakthrough

Lauren Whitehead, MBA ’26 during her first week at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Business school is intense, especially the first semester. Leading up to starting school, I had heard it would be, but I had also heard it would be “a two-year vacation,” and I thought reality was somewhere in the middle. My reality is shaping up to be the former—a great group of people but a lot of long days and nights filled with classes, recruiting, leadership roles, and socializing.

A common theme I heard about business school was that the first semester would be the hardest. You are adjusting to a new normal, learning to balance a lot of new tasks, and going through vigorous internship recruiting. It was emotionally and physically taxing; most days, I spent 12 to 15 hours on campus, and the routine of regular sleep, eating healthy, and exercising started to break down. I quickly learned that I had to focus on one day at a time. Looking too far ahead in my schedule and seeing how busy it was caused stress and anxiety.

The breaking point

The mix of classes, recruiting, socializing, and maintaining personal relationships was overwhelming. Socializing quickly went to the back burner, and I would often use Friday or Saturday nights to catch up on class after a full week of consulting recruitment events. Missing out on social events was the right decision for me during this time, but the creep of classes and recruitment didn’t stop there. I began missing workouts, and I didn’t have time to run errands, cook, or do anything I really enjoyed outside of what had to be on my plate at that time. It was exhausting and draining, and I didn’t have a lot that recharged me.

I finally knew something had to change one morning in October. My partner, Sean, and I were going to the gym before he took me to school. He was talking about going home to see his family soon and how excited he was about it. At 6 a.m., I began crying and felt like I couldn’t stop. I was emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted, and I knew I still had five days of a packed calendar before I’d have a few free hours in the evening to relax. All I wanted was to go home with him to see my family. I didn’t think I could keep doing this. That was my breaking point. I had to force myself to stop and slow down because what I was doing wasn’t working. I was trying to prioritize everything, and it was causing me to fall apart. This was a weird feeling. For the first time, I felt like life was taking such a toll that I was losing control of my emotions, and there was no sign of life slowing down.

Surviving the storm

Business school is intense, and it shaped how I will tackle stressful situations in the future.

1. I have always been focused on the future and how I’m working toward the bigger picture. Thinking about my life like that during my first semester was unbearable. It caused so much anxiety and feelings of being completely overwhelmed. It’s no wonder—I look back at my task lists for the semester, and I have over 400 completed items on that list. Focusing on the day in front of me gave me a feeling of being able to handle what was coming toward me, and little by little, I made it.
2. If you don’t need to, don’t go through these periods alone. Some situations you need to go through alone, but if you can, lean on others for support. I had an amazing partner who took care of everything outside of school and recruiting. He made sure personal tasks were taken care of; I had healthy meals every day; and I got to where I needed to go—a lot of which I would have struggled to get done while focusing on everything else. I also had incredible friends who were going through similar situations. They were able to provide more tactical support of preparing, studying, and venting together. The most important thing about leaning on others for support: Make sure you support them back.
3. I don’t think I’m a perfectionist, but I do like things done well and thoroughly. Giving 100% to everything I was tackling wasn’t going to end well. Some of the best advice I got during my first semester was, “Know what you want to learn or get out of each thing and work until you get that out of it; then just ‘get through’ the rest.” This mentality helped me get what I wanted out of class, recruiting, and socializing during this intense period. That isn’t how I want to go through regular life, but that was my “survival mode,” and that mindset made a world of difference.

Lessons learned

Despite everything I did to get through the tough times and be successful, I learned a few more concrete lessons about what I want to keep top of mind going forward.

1. Boundaries are important. We have all heard the importance of learning to say no. I struggled to put that into practice. As I became more and more depleted from continuing to say yes, things that were genuinely important to me became harder to manage. Understanding how to say no, even if I had capacity at that exact moment, became a huge life lesson in how to protect my well-being and relationships.
2. This is a marathon, not a sprint. During recruitment, second-year students set a playbook for how we would be successful and what we would need to accomplish. It was incredibly helpful but doing everything became exhausting (see No. 1). No matter how fast I could “run,” knowing when to force a stop for myself to recharge made all the difference. Only you know when you need a break and making sure you take that break can help you be recharged for the rest of the “race.”
3. People are everything. The more you want to accomplish, the harder it becomes to do everything on your own. My second semester taught me how to rely on people and that the people who care about you want to help carry your load. Your network may not be able to help with the actual work but sharing the mental and emotional load can make the work much easier to complete.

Growing and going forward

Looking back, it’s easy to downplay just how overwhelming this period felt, but the lessons I’ve taken from it are invaluable. Seven months into business school, I have a much deeper understanding of my limits, my resilience, and the importance of setting boundaries to protect my well-being. This experience has shown me that I am capable of more than I ever imagined—but also that true success isn’t just about pushing through; it’s about being intentional with my energy and leaning on the right people for support.

As I move forward, I know there will be more demanding periods in my career and life, but I feel better equipped to navigate them with balance, perspective, and confidence. The friendships and support system I built during this time were just as critical to my success as my own determination, and that’s a lesson I’ll carry with me far beyond business school. No matter what challenges come next, I now have the tools—and the people—to get through them.

About the author

Lauren Whitehead is a first-year MBA student in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, where she is pursuing a career pivot into consulting. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, she attended Ohio State University and majored in operations management. Before business school, she spent five years at PNC Bank, first as a corporate banking associate in treasury management in Pittsburgh, PA, and later with the internal strategy team in Chicago, IL At the Johnson School, she is vice president of admissions for the Women’s Management Council and president of the Johnson Consulting Club. This summer, she will intern at Bain & Co. in Chicago.