Hello Everybody,

My name is Jacob Flikshteyn, but everyone either calls me Jake or Jay. My family and I are from Russia and we reside in Queens. Besides being a sophomore here at Baruch, I spend my mornings as a truck driver doing local deliveries, and my evenings as a real estate agent. I leave very little time for myself to rest or sleep, which I don’t mind as much as most would assume. It is very difficult for me to go through my day without having a task to attack. Not having an agenda always causes me to feel anxious, and as a result I keep myself very busy and always under pressure.

This neurotic trait of mine has always made buckling down on a book a challenge for me. I do most of my reading on subway rides between the city and queens, reading a few chapters a day. However, I prefer to read a book from start to finish. I hate leaving tasks undone and when I start something; I usually work until it is complete. As a result, reading a book at the pace of a few chapters a week has always bothered me.

Growing up, my favorite book was, “Where the Wild things Are.” It was about a boy that would go to his room at night and conjure up these dreams of him being king of the wild. Looking back, I think I liked the book so much because I was able to relate to the boy in the story. My imagination ran as wild as his and I was able to draw a parallel between the two of us. Now as an adult, I feel as though the books I enjoy most are still the ones I easily relate to. For example, I really enjoyed both texts, “Catcher in the Rye,” and “Into the Wild,” which both works about teenagers that try to pave a way for their future.