ENG 2150 w Prof. Perry Spring 2023

Hi, my name is Abagail and I’m from Brooklyn. This is my second semester at Baruch and I’m majoring in history. From the interview sheet, I chose “What brings you the greatest happiness when you think back on your life so far?” This question stood out to me because I can think of multiple answers, such as my friends and family, alongside music and concerts. Spending time with the people that I love is important to me, as it’s not often because of conflicting schedules. Concerts also bring me great happiness as I get to see my favorite artists live, interact with them and bring along whoever.

During our first class, I spoke with two people, Debbie and Ibrahima. We talked about multiple questions from the sheet, but also came up with our own. Two that we answered from the sheet were “What superpower would you have?” and “What would you add to your personality?” For the first one, Debbie and I answered teleportation, meanwhile Ibrahima answered mind reading. In the second question, we all had the same answer, which was to be more outgoing. The ones that we came up with included our music taste, what classes we took last semester, and where we’re from.

Hi everyone! My name is Ariel. If I could do whatever I wanted, I would be a dictator. But in a good way, definitely not like those we have seen in history, unfortunately. If I was a dictator, I would immediately tax the rich, to create a fund pool where I can distribute the money towards need based assistance programs and education. I would put a cap on medical exploitation, meaning no more private insurance or private medical companies. I would fix the MTA trains, remodeling infrastructure, the homeless, and the millions of rodents confining the city. I would also make it illegal to raise the prices of neighborhoods/apartments past 1.5k when the apartment is barely functional or not big enough for a single person’s belongings. I have plenty more, especially regarding child care and crime rates. Learning about politics has told us that many individuals that influence the President’s laws, many of whom are biased. So if I could do anything I wanted, I would do everything just right, for the people. Thanks!

For our class icebreaker, I had Yineldi. I asked her if she could commit any crime and get away with it, what would it be? Yineldi responded that “at this point, I would rob any bank” because she wants money, which I completely resonated with.

I also asked her a second question on what kind of superpower she would like to have. Yineldi said that it would be teleportation, because if she had that, she would have used it for this class. When I asked how, she very hilariously pointed out that she could have just opened her eyes, teleported, and been right there in that seat instead of waking up at 5am and coming here. Thanks Yineldi for the funny responses!

Hello, My name is Evan Rivera and I am a freshman at Baruch College. I am here to explain why I get along with people. For the most part I like to believe I have a very likable personality, someone who you can have fun with all the time and forget about the things that worry you the most throughout the day. I love to joke around and find out what interests people to use that as a way for us to have a great time. I thought for a while if I was socially awkward and it drove me insane. I slowly began to realize that I just have to put myself out there to get people to know me for who I am just as much as I get to know them.

I interviewed Brendan he told me many things about himself. He really likes music and loves to hang out. He really expressed his love for partying and going out with his friends on a weekend. I then asked him if he could have one superpower what would it be, he replied with the ability to read minds and I’d have to agree with that one. A very useful and unique superpower to have and Id definitely choose that one too. I really enjoyed my conversation with him and look forward to more in the future with everyone else in the class.

   Hi everyone, my name is Tracey! I’m a freshman here at Baruch. The question I will be answering about myself is “ What book has had the most profound impact on your life?”

   I love reading, so there is a lot of books which have moved me deeply, but a book that has had the most profound impact on my life, is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I know a lot of people read this book in middle school, but I hadn’t read it up until a year ago. This book dives into the painful and complex lives of Afghan women against the backdrop of war. Although it is a heartbreaking story, I love this book because of how beautifully it is written. If you’re ever thinking of picking up a book, I hope you give this one a try!

   In class, I spoke to Jael. I asked her, “If you were to write a book, what would it be about?” She responded by saying she would write about generational trauma, because it needs to be talked about more, which I wholeheartedly agree with. On a more lighthearted note, to answer the question “If you could get away with it, what crime would you commit and why?” we agreed on bank robbery.

My name is Jael, I am a freshman hear at Baruch, and I am from Brooklyn, NY the best borough in NY by the way it’s a known fact. 3 things I love about myself is my ability to find new friends, however it’s been kind of hard here at Baruch, I also like the diligence I have when it comes to my education, lastly I love my sense of humor. My favorite superhero is definitely Batman, he is so underrated just because he doesn’t have super powers. If he has the strength and courage to fight Superman, I believe he deserves some respect.

I chose to interview my partner Tracy. I learned that Tracy is from Queens. We have the same favorite superhero, which is Batman, but she only likes him because the actor was “hot” lol. One thing I did find interesting about her was when I asked her, “What’s it’s like living in your head?”, she said that she mainly thinks about books, which is something I don’t hear from a lot of people, but we both think about food a lot, which I love.

Tell me about an important friend that you no longer have contact with.

My name is Adam Mapoy and I am a first-year student at Baruch College majoring in finance. I will be talking about a close friend of mine who played a big part in my childhood who moved away a couple years ago.

When I was in 2nd grade, I met a kid who had the same exact interests as me. Growing up, we played basketball at recess every day, stayed up all night playing video games, shared a love for sneakers, and we even had dreams of one day playing in the NBA together. He was my closest friend growing up. There was only one problem. My friend didn’t have the best family life back at home, and so there was always something going on behind the scenes that I was blind to. As time went on, the weight of his problems got heavier, and eventually the weight was too heavy to carry. He was getting in trouble at school a whole lot and slipped into a depression. I always wondered why the world had to give such problems to that happy little kid that I was best friends with at 7 years old. He eventually got the help he needed, and moved away to Florida to live with his cousins. This was about 3 years ago. He decided to cut off all contact and focus on himself and what he wants for his future. Every now and then, he’ll give me a call and catch up on everything, and from what I’ve been hearing, he has been doing pretty well. This serves as a reminder that not everyone has a perfect life, and we should never judge based off of how a person acts because you never truly know what someone is going through.

In our last class, I spoke to Joe Bello. I didn’t ask him any of the interview questions, but I did ask him a few personal question to get to know him. We talked about how he played baseball, and how it has always been a big part of his life. Through this I found out that we are similar, as basketball used to be a big part of my life, although I stopped playing once I got to college. I found it interesting how we were able to connect easily through our love of the sport we played for the majority of our lives.

Hi, My name is Demetrios. If I were forced to fight one living person today and win, it would probably be the king of England but not in a like way that should alarm the England military, it’s just because I think he’d make a funny face in response to getting punched in the face.

Interview

I interviewed my dear friend, Michael. We met last semester and became fast friends. Having most of our schedule together, we talked a lot for a good period of time. The question I ended up asking him was “what is the best thing you ever witnessed”. While I was expecting him to come up with some type of joke answer like him simply saying “your mom” he actually came up with a pretty cool answer. He talked about how he once was out late at night on vacation in Peru, and the area he was in was very remote so it had almost no light pollution and he got to see a ton of stars that we don’t really see here in New York.

Hi, my name is Sofia. I’m a freshman in Baruch, majoring in finance. I’m from Ukraine. One of the questions from the interview question that I found interesting, was “Where would you like to go in the world and stay for a year? Why?”. This was my favorite question, and I answered it easily. I would like to go to Greece and stay there for a year. The reason behind this, is that I’ve been in a lot of countries in Europe for vacation, and Greece so far is my favorite. It’s a very beautiful and peaceful country.

In class I spoke with Lisbeth. One of the questions that I asked her, was “What do you consider your most prized object?”, she answered without hesitation that it’s her dog. She then showed me some pictures of her dog, and her dog is very cute. I think her answer was very reasonable, because I’ve been wanting a dog my whole life, but can’t get one because my dad is allergic, but I truly believe that a dog can be an emotional support and a friend to humans. Me and Lisbeth discussed a lot of things during this ice breaker activity and I really enjoyed talking with her

My name is Tsering. If I could teach one thing to my children, it would be to treat others the way you want to be treated. This is something that I strongly believe in. It sums up everything about treating others with respect, love, and compassion. It makes our life and the lives of people around us easier.

I talked to Swatee. An ideal day for her would be to wake up around 9 am, have breakfast and spend about 1-2 hours on her laptop to catch up on dramas. She would then go out with her friends and eat out. Then she would come home and spend time with her parents. We also talked about what is one quality someone has that we are envious of. She said that she is envious of people who can communicate and connect well. People who can go up to someone and just start a conversation and connect immediately. This is something we shared in common as I am also envious of such quality. Swatee believes that life goes well when we eliminate negativity from our life and learn from our failures instead of being put down by them. One thing she would teach her children is how words affect people and how it can hurt someone even though it is not our intention.