Journal #1 – Group #2
My name is Sophina Cheung and I am from Brooklyn, New York. Being from the Brooklyn neighborhood that I am from, I was never really exposed to the ways people struggled in their daily lives, whether it be internally, socially, or financially. Until the end of my junior year in high school did things really take a turn for me; it seemed as if my life was turned completely upside down. Although I don’t wish to publicly expose what exactly happened, the event changed my life drastically. Family dynamics changed and an immense amount of pressure, stress, frustration, along with confusion arose. Going through this time for my family and I indefinitely changed the way I looked at life as cliché as all the things I’m about to write sounds. From this experience, I realized that it is critical that I surround myself around others who I believe are important to me and value the time that I spend with them because things may change in a blink of the eye. Once time passes, we can’t go back in time to try to get it back.
With almost a month into my first year of college, I am still in the midst of fully transitioning into college and in terms of the things that I’m worried about are probably a concern among most, if not all, students, including maintaining my GPA, doing well in the courses, and staying on track towards my goals. All that I really expect for the next four years is just to have a rewarding experience. I want to thrive as an individual and foster the current relationships that I have while starting new ones along the way as well. I wish to be successful all around—socially, mentally, and academically—and look forward to the rest of my time here at Baruch College.
I feel adjusting to college is hard too and I’m worried about grades and all that too. Usually I just tell myself to deal with things in front first since it’s easy to be overwhelmed otherwise. Good luck!
Sophina,
I think it’s great that your tough experience helped you realize that you need to surround yourself with positive and supportive people. We are all struggling with transitioning to college so you’re not alone. As for your goals, if you set your mind to it, I’m sure you will succeed! Good luck!
Your talking about focusing on thriving is pretty inspirational! I’m glad you were able to get past whatever happened in junior year in high school – sometimes the lowest points can end up really helping us push forward and re-evaluate what’s important.
I think it was moving the way you talked about how you bounced back and learned from your difficult experience in junior year. Surrounding yourself with positive people is definitely a value that we should all have and I like how you addressed that in your post. I hope you make the best out of your time here at Baruch where I’m sure you’ll be successful!