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18Let me ask you something.
Have you ever noticed that foreigners — or people working in Western companies — seem to slowly disappear at the end of the year?
Starting from late November, emails become shorter, meetings get postponed, projects suddenly get “pushed to January,” and no one really looks like they’re giving one hundred percent anymore.
And if you’ve ever worked in a multinational company, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about.
It almost feels like… from Thanksgiving all the way to New Year’s, the Western world is mentally half on vacation.
Now here’s the funny part. For me personally, the end of the year is actually the most terrifying season of all. As an MBA admissions consultant, this is peak chaos. Most major MBA application deadlines are packed into December and early to mid-January. Right now, I’m completely in the trenches — essays, deadlines, interviews, last-minute edits.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a battlefield. And yes — that’s also why the Say Hi podcast has been updating a tad more slowly as of late.
But here’s the irony. While people like me are drowning, for most people — especially Westerners — this is actually the happiest, warmest, and most anticipated time of the year.
They call it the holiday season.
So today, I want to explain what this holiday season really is — not just the holidays themselves, but the cultural rhythm, the emotional flow, and why it changes how people think, work, and live.
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