Bizbabes

Three weekends ago I spent a weekend of renewal with five of my business school sisters! Lovingly calling ourselves the “Bizbabes” (actually, it was a spouse who suggested the name – which we quickly adopted), we have met “annually” since 1999 (I think). Our version of “annual” however has nothing to do with the calendar. Our version of “annual” is simply when we feel the need to reconnect. And somehow it happens. There will be an e-mail from one of us with the subject header “Reunion”. Then, like “magic” our reunion happens – sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Schedules, itineraries, venues synchronise – and with us coming from Jamaica, California, Colorado, New York and Virginia it’s quite a feat! With the Bizbabes, time has no meaning. For when we reunite physically, we simply pick up from where we left off, the conversations continued, the connections unbroken, and the love ongoing and continuous. The space of time simply disappears.

How is it that a group of Harvard MBAs could feel comfortable enough to call themselves “babes”? 21 years ago (for that’s how long it has been since graduation), if a male colleague had called us a “babe” we would have hung and quartered him! Perhaps it’s some measure of delight that we consider ourselves, and others still consider us, attractive, sexy women. Perhaps we also realize that our journey to the pinnacles of the business world is fundamentally a journey of womanhood, of femininity, of bringing the best of being female to the corporate world; and that we, as women being women unapologetically, add immense value to a more humane, loving way of doing business. And perhaps with “age” has come a realization that it matters not what we call ourselves, nor what others label us, it simply matters who we are and who we know we are.

And herein lies the “secret” to the Bizbabes connection – the total, unconditional acceptance of each other. I know with my Bizbabes that there are no judgments or recriminations. I am simply Marguerite. And I accept Claire, Claudia, Julie, Katie and Patrice exactly as they are! We accept each as we were at business school, and as we have been at each past reunion. We accept each other as we are now. We accept each other as we are in the “spaces” – the times in between when communication is intermittent at best and nonexistent at worst! There are never any “Why didn’t you …” with us. There are never “How could you have …..”.

Our times together are times of sharing – not so much filling in the gaps since our last reunion, but of sharing where we are now, our new journeys upon which we are embarking, new pathways that we are exploring. Bizbabes are “sounding boards” for our new futures; loving, non-judgmental openers of options, new vistas and ideas – simply placing them on the table for us to partake as we need, with no hurt if advice is not taken, simply the pleasure of having supported each other.

My Bizbabes are special. I look forward to our next “annual” reunion – when and where is not known. What IS known is that we are a sisterhood of “babes”, rooted in love for each other – all we have been, are and will be. I love you my sisters – Claire, Claudia, Julie, Katie, Patrice! And I await, or may be the sender of, the inevitable e-mail “Reunion …”.