Category: Uncategorized

This is going to be my last post. I tried to put out some ideas that I found interesting from my sociology and english class.

The Community Service Project was a unique experience. I have never been required to look for a non-profit organization and then do a presentation on volunteering for it. It helped that the class met the librarian before we started to research because he pointed a couple of good websites to use.

This was the first time I volunteered in the upper east side. It surely was the first time I did meal delivery. I was surprised in the apartments I delivered meals to. I won’t get in depth with the experience but, my idea of volunteering did change by a bit. Putting into words how it changed is difficult because everything is a mix of past and present to me. I cannot tell how it changed from working on this project.

I have already begun using the Writing Center but, that place is almost always booked. I have to think 2 weeks ahead most of the time to even have a chance of getting a spot. Maybe next time I will try out the walk-in hours in the library.

What I am beginning to understand more, is that I am suppose to make the best out of any experience I have. A volunteering experience is much more than volunteering. Doing homework isn’t just to do homework. Everything I do should have more use than what seems to be the surface of it. It gives us an understanding of what it should mean to be a student and what I mean by that is that being a student is where we should be intellectually challenged in a way that helps us in the future.

Like, to be a college student isn’t just so that we get a bachelor’s degree. It shouldn’t be and the honors program tries to express this point but, in the end it depends on the individual. What we as college students will achieve should be something we think about now and is not something that can be pushed back. Time is no friend and we all know it as the first semester is about to end. Without a goal, a purpose, you will just wander and when you finally wake up, you regret.

That is basically my first semester but, I don’t regret too many things I did. I joined a club and as I mentioned, I am trying to make a badminton club. I found a group of people now compared to the state I was in for the first blog.  I actually gave up into the semester but, I chose to go out to new places and I somehow met up with people who were interested in the same thing. That was one of the most surprising things that happened to me. When I expected nothing out of something, it exceeded my expectations :3.

Honestly, to call giving us these resources an edge to us in other courses and future success in Baruch is a far fetched idea to me. These resources that were given to us are available to every other Baruch student and the departments work very hard to promote their services in their email. The people who do not use the resources are either not checking their emails or just do not take advantage of it. An edge is only an edge when used and that depends on yourself.

In the future, I do not see much and I do not expect to see anything. I have already noticed that every time I have asked myself to look to the future, I have been wrong every single time. Time and time again, I was wrong. I did things I could have never imagined. Like, I never imagined becoming a badminton player in middle school and somehow (hah) in high school I became the best in the school. You can’t predict what you will become in the future but, you might (keyword) be able to push yourself in a crossroad that has billions of possibilities. At the same time though, you lose every option that you did not choose and that is something that I found to be important.  Every time I chose to read manga and laze around, I beat myself up but, I continue to do it every so often. Without a goal for both short term and long term, procrastination is inevitable. Good luck on escaping the cycle of procrastination.

Maybe somewhere down the line, I will make an update on this blog. Hopefully you remember a sentence from my blog two days from now :3

If I knew my role, I would not be as lost as I am now. I would not be drifting around in my classes and procrastinating when it comes to doing homework. I do not know my role in Baruch. I am just that normal guy that is like “What is going to happen next?” It would be wonderful if I was fed the answers to the questions in my life. What should I aim to become? What is my true self that I should strive for? Why go to college? To get an education that would get me a good job? What makes being a Baruch Scholar any different from any other college student out there? I just got higher grades and had a pretty good essay but, that does not mean I am better than the non-scholar students. The fact that I get the label as a scholar is a question itself. The idea of what it means to be a scholar is dependent on society and the time period we are in. I may be a scholar in terms of Baruch but, my employer may not think the same way. Who knows maybe I will be the employer hiring a Baruch Scholar. That would be funny.

It is easy for people to say that you will discover life on your own but, why would I ever ask anyone about life if I knew what was going on. What do I think my role in the community should be? That question in itself makes me question just how much an individual can really do in a community. That does not mean an individual can not lead society to one direction but, it questions how much power you really have in the decision of your role. Like I cannot say that my role is to become a dictator in the community because, that just is not realistic. There are other factors that affect it like, what family I was born into and what country I was born into. From what I think, my role has already been decided the moment I was born. I can imagine that there is some higher being up there (or even down there) that is playing a game with my life. It is just that I have yet to realize what my role is and I do not know if Baruch will help me figure stuff out. When I do, I will come back to this question again.

This is related to the culture of service the Honors Programs promotes because, it comes down to the idea of giving back to the community. It is the same concept of big businesses being socially responsible after getting rich from the common people. I have to give back to the community that brought me up. For I hold myself responsible for the future generations…is that my role?

Starting badminton in high school played a role in shaping who I am today. It gave me confidence whenever I became able to do shots I could not before and the experiences I have had with it made me become more open to other people’s idea. Because, in order to get better, I had to always listen to my coaches and think about what they would say. Honestly, as it came time to go to Baruch, all my coaches started to leave the club I went to. It was a really tough time for me and I had to think about a lot of things on my own. That is why when I came into Baruch, it has already begun changing some thoughts I have. Like my English and Sociology class I have right now. The ideas that show up in the readings and conversations I have in class really made me more self-conscious of the world we live in today. That a lot of things have already been decided for us and that we either do not care or just do no realize it yet. As a college student, I feel like if I went the normal route, I will end up becoming an employee but, I feel this is not something I want to become after college. Sure, I have a wage and money but, is that really what it means to live in today’s society? That is the reasoning that I have always been listening to from my family but, once again, the idea that there is something is not in my own control comes about. I pray that I do not get kicked out of the scholars for not making the grade requirements in the first semester.