CLASS REUNION

Thirty one years ago, a small group of students from different countries around the world gathered for the first time at the Sloan School of Management to participate in an educational adventure aimed at strengthening competencies for the management of emerging technologies: the so-called MOT Program.

For Mario Benedetti, an instant is the crossing of two times, the crossing of two paths, the crossing of two lives and, at that moment, involves a huge or a tiny world. For the alumni of my MOT class, the reunion in Cambridge, Massachusetts a few days ago, meant precisely a moment where we convened during a fleeting present sharing «the feelings, the predictions of the future and the leftovers of forgetfulness».

For three decades, some of our colleagues left us behind and today enjoy a better life; others could not accompany us due to illness or for various reasons. But for we all whom reunited there was an intense and sincere desire to repair the ravages of distance, time, absence and separation.

I cannot imagine a richer environment in terms of diversity and inclusion: cultural diversity, ideologies, ethnicity, experiences, further academic formation, lifestyles and professional paths. However, the inclusion, accompanied by a glass of good wine, placid conversation, gastronomic delights, artistic and academic events, resulted in a coveted coalition, placing each one of us in the same temporal, spatial, emotional and spiritual context.

Walking once again around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus was undoubtedly an unforgettable experience; doing it in harmony, with those who were part of an important stage of your academic life, was more than memorable.

Fifty years after the arrival of man on the moon, MIT has educated thousands of scientists and technologists from around the world, including thirty-five astronauts, four of whom walked on the surface of the Earth’s satellite. However, this handful of MOT alumni who enjoy each other’s company that weekend of June also fully represents the educational quality of an avant-garde academic institution. The reunion validated my belief that this generation has contributed significantly to our having a better world and that the future that holds for our descendants is underpinned by contributions from great men and women.

Benedetti, Uruguayan poet and writer, captivates us with his appreciation of the inevitable: «yesterday, past passed with its history and frayed uncertainty; with his stain of fright and blame». But he also adds in another poem: «slow, but it comes; the future approaches slowly, but it comes». Our reunion in the present time, at that instant, was the only real thing: the past no longer exists, and the future has not arrived.