Farewell, Old Chum.

When I started my MBA program, I knew I'd be placed in a group. This group was to be my team for the first four of nine semesters of the program. We would do all collective projects together and be responsible for helping each other keep up if any of us had to miss a day of notes. I was terrified by this prospect -- in the months preceding our program's beginning, I had an impending fear that I'd be stuck with business-y jackasses who felt superior to me, lazy people for whom I'd have to do all the work, or anti-social, competitive maniacs.

Then school started. And my group was -- in layman's terms -- the bomb.

When the school set us up, they did so via some statistical analysis, based on goals, personality, and achievements to date. Most groups had six people, but ours only had five. And what a group of five we were. We had an architect from Columbia, who had the most fabulous sense of humour and tended to look a bit like U2's Bono. We had a computer programmer from the Phillipines -- a little shy and incredibly sweet in his modesty -- with such innate understanding of financials that I was constantly in awe. We had an engineer from India -- currently working as a pharmaceutical consultant -- who played the group father figure with incredible brilliance, diplomacy, and one of the kindest hearts I've had the pleasure to see. We had the adorable marketing whiz-kid from Hong Kong, whose organizational skills and sensibility towards stellar teamwork kept us all on perfect track. And we had me: brand junkie, paper-writing fiend, presentation dynamo, and overall Perky Pollyanna.

We worked exceptionally well together. We had similar styles for putting projects together and highly connected attitudes on learning and teamwork. Each of our skills really complemented those of our teammaters, and I'm certain that we learned as much from each other -- if not more -- than we did during our lectures. We spent time together outside of the classroom, discussing life, politics, entertainment, and aspirations. It was an amazing relationship and I was thrilled to have the lot of them in my life.

Then first semester ended and second semester began. Our architect disappeared. He sent us an email saying he'd withdrawn for personal reasons. It was an unusual exit, but we respected his need for privacy and carried on. We often chatted about him, wondering if his family was okay, hoping the best, but never heard from him again. We went through another semester, reassembled our skill sets to cover what he'd contributed and continued kicking ass.

The second semester ended and third semester began. Next thing we know, we're getting an email from our engineer/consultant. He's been offered a position as associate VP at his company -- a huge honour and a real testament to his talents and kind personality! -- and will have to leave the program, as his new position requires him to live in India and spend a good deal of time in Europe. He met with our classmates for the final post-lecture beer-fest on Thursday night, then met with just our team today for our final post-group-meeting lunch at our favourite cafe by school. We reminisced, laughed, talked. He told us that his wife is newly pregnant and that he expected each of us to come visit him in Delhi.

We really do miss him already. It's quite incredible the close relationships you can form with people when you work so very well together. So to one crazy-exceptional friend: good luck, congratulations, and stay in touch. We all feel lucky as hell to have known someone as fantastic as you!