English 2850 Fall 2022: Great Works of World Literature II

Hello, my name’s Wannie Olazabal, but I’d like to be addressed as Wannie and go by she/her pronouns. I’ve been in New York all my life and have always found this place to be my home. I am now a sophomore in my 3rd semester a Baruch and majoring in Accounting. I enjoy listening to K-Pop and I’ve been into it since around my freshman year of high school. Sometimes when walking on campus and I recognize certain things like BT21 keychains, I get a little burst of excitement. I also enjoy listening to other kinds of music as well and bubble tea; mango green tea with tapioca pearls is pretty nice.

I had to give the prompt some thought and even now I can’t think exactly what I wish to talk about, but one I can discuss would be Alan Walker’s ”The Spectre”. My dad and I both enjoy Alan Walker’s music a lot, and for my quinceañera he set up a slideshow of my childhood photos to recent photos at the time with that song playing. I felt touched and sometimes when I replay that song I briefly think back to the slideshow. It’s a little something, but it’s something that stuck with the song whenever I listen to it.

Hello! My name is Kaycie Hernandez and I am a sophomore at Baruch. I’m majoring in psychology and minoring in sociology and law. I definitely want to work with children in the future, whether that be as a child psychologist or as a social worker. Growing up in a difficult household, I was often surrounded by social workers who always made me feel safe and heard. I was able to experience first hand the huge impact that they can have on the physical and mental wellbeing of children with difficult home lives. I hope to someday be that place of comfort for other kids. On the weekends, I volunteer at my church teaching religious classes for first and second graders. Even though I don’t get paid, I completely love teaching them, listening to their millions of questions, and seeing their faces light up every time they hear something new. One major part of my identity is my Catholic faith and relationship with God. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to go on multiple pilgrimages with my church, the largest ones being Italy in 2017 and Jerusalem this past summer. Both were unforgettable experiences which brought me closer to my faith. 

The Road of Lost Innocence is a memoir by Somaly Mam, a survivor of sex trafficing in South Asia. This memoir was the most impactful and astonishing text I have ever read. The tragedy of child sex crimes is portrayed through the eyes of someone who lived in this system her entire life. At the age of 12, Somaly was sold by her grandfather into sexual slavery, to cover his gambling debts. Over the years, she along with other girls from the age of 5, were trafficked to international brothels. Her experience of sexual, physical, and mental abuse would scar her forever. But despite the devastation of her experiences, what truly defines this memoir is the reality that she not only had the strength to escape this life, but is now helping other girls escape this life of forced prostitution. Reading this memoir, I was able to learn about the unimaginable fear and violence with which these girls live. Somaly was able to rise above the evil of her environment and become a light for so many of these true victims.

Hello everyone, my name is Nusaiba Ramisa (she/her), I’d like to be addressed by Nusaiba which is pronounced new-sy-ba. I’m currently a sophomore at Baruch and my major is HR Management. I am originally from Bangladesh, but I’ve lived in New York City for the majority of my life. My hobbies include listening to music, cooking for my family, and traveling the world. I’ve traveled to numerous countries so far and one of my main goals in life is to visit all 195 countries. 

A text which has made a lasting impression on me has to be something I’ve heard over and over again in my life, “why didn’t you get a 100?”. A 90 or a 95 never satisfied my parents and they always questioned me and asked where did the rest of the points go. After hearing them tell me this so many times throughout my academic career, I became mentally congested with the academic pressure of gettings high grades and competing with others. I began to internalize every bad grade and this caused me to have low self-esteem. As I entered my senior year of high school, I decided that I would no longer let my grades define me and put my mental health first. It was extremely challenging at first, but I finally realized that success has multiple definitions and that good grades don’t define our future success.

Hi! I’m Navya Joseph, my pronouns are she/her and I prefer to be called by my first name. I am a sophomore here at Baruch College, majoring in Accounting. My childhood was kind of all over the place. I was born in India and then brought to the US a few months later. Then I had to go back to India with my three siblings so that my mom can focus on getting her nursing degree. So my siblings and I stayed in India for 3 years, under the supervision of my grandma and uncle. I completed Kindergarten through 2nd grade there and then came to the US in 2011. I have been residing in the city of Yonkers ever since. Some of my hobbies include playing the guitar, singing, journaling, and going on daily walks with my dog.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I read the prompt is this podcast I’ve been listening to for a while now. It’s called “Difficult-ish”, a podcast about different South Asian narratives. Once I moved to America in 2011, I struggled to find a sense of community. Ever since the third grade, I was the only Indian kid in all my classrooms. I feel like everyone around me perceived me to be more Indian than I had ever felt. I believed that because I didn’t take classical Indian dance classes growing up or didn’t feel as connected to my religion, I was somehow less Indian than other Indians. But this podcast showed me that being South Asian goes beyond just our traditions; it made me realize the one thing that will always connect us South Asians to each other is our experience. The hosts, Mohuya and Mashnun, have conversations about several topics like boundaries in a South Asian home, the stigma around moving out in our community, our not-so-difficult names, and so on. Listening to these conversations made me feel like someone understood me and how this struggle to find our identity as South Asians is a universal experience. I would recommend this podcast to anyone. You don’t have to be South Asian to relate to some of the topics and will come out of it learning more if anything.

Below is a painting done by one of the hosts of the podcast, Mohuya Khan. It’s called, Unleash Your Inner Tiger.

Hello! My name is Arianna Jara. I’m a sophomore at Baruch and I’m majoring in Marketing Management. My pronouns are she/her. I’m Nicaraguan-American but I was born in Nicaragua and grew up there for most of my childhood. I like consuming a lot of media like watching movies and television shows and listening to music. My taste in music expands to different genres and languages so I basically like anything that sounds good to me. I also enjoy editing videos and occasionally scrapbooking. 

Last month, I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and it left a lasting impression on me than any other movie I have watched recently. This film essentially captures a mother-daughter relationship in such a creative and vulnerable way that you can’t help but bawl while watching. Additionally, this film has definitely changed my perspective about living life because of the view on the phrase “nothing really matters” attached to the story. At the end of the day, we are all just tiny molecules in the grand scheme of things so we should just go after what we want that in the end makes us happy. This film is really special as there is nothing like it so I would recommend it to anyone who loves cinema. 

Hi, My name is Rachelle Campos. I am a sophomore here at baruch and i’ll be talking a little bit about me in this post. Writing or talking about myself have not always been my favorite lol. I would go back to my old post from my first semester here at baruch and get some ideas from there but I feel like I can say so much has happened and it would be interesting to write this one and go back to it and see what was different from my first post back when I was taking 2100 with Professor Sylvor. But going back to my introduction, I’m proud to say that I am Mexican-American and the first in my family to go to college. I find it really special when my younger cousins say they would like to attend college just like me.If anything it motivates me to push myself and work hard. If we talk majors and stuff, as of now I am working towards Entrepreneurship but who knows maybe I switch and if I do it would be to Marketing.

Some hobbies of mine consist of going to concerts, listening to music (I am always open to new genres of music), traveling, watching shows, getting informed on what is going on in the world and helping out those in need. And i also love photography! Some of my favorite artists consist of bad bunny, kevin kaarl,the marias, among others:) so if we have any in common let’s connect:) This summer i attended two concerts and also traveled, so I can say this summer was pretty special.

In response to the question given by professor sylvor, I would say that there have been a couple of things that have made a lasting impression on me. Since I can’t seem to think of anything from my childhood as I am writing this I would just talk about recent events. Im not a big reader,(currently working on that) so I can’t think about a book that has made an impact on me. But I would like to talk about the time I lost a childhood friend to cancer. This happened in June. It was definitely something it took me long to process. We were classmates all through elementary but he moved and i didn’t see him until we had found out about him having cancer. “It was such a painful and advanced cancer that came out of nowhere” says his mom. But regardless of all the pain he went through, he ALWAYS ALWAYSSS had a bright smile on his face. You would never see him complain about the pain, even if it was severe pain. Something I admired of him. 7 months before his passing, I had invited him to eat breakfast because I was told by his mom he needed someone his age to talk to because he kept so much to himself and i said yes without a doubt because he was a childhood friend. This is a memory i will forever cherish. I remember being woken up by my mom saying “He passed, he is no longer here” when i heard those words i felt this feeling run through my whole body. No word would come out of my mouth. All I did was hug my mom. To end this right here, I would like to say that this definitely had an impact on me because he taught me so much about life, after everything i looked at life with a different perspective. I learned to enjoy what i have because who knows what life has planned for us. I learned to not live with problems and forgive because who knows if one day I would need from them or they would need from me. This concludes my post.

Below are pictures from the one of the best concerts i’ve gone to. These are from this summer:)))

Hi! My name is Fatima Barrie and I’m a sophomore here at Baruch College. This is my 3rd semester and I’d give my experience overall a 8/10 so far. My hobbies include journaling, watching movies and going out with my friends/siblings. I’ve been really into murder mysterious because I’m curious to how and why they made those decisions to become who they (or society, really) identify as. 

I now journal mainly as a way to self reflect. I find it comforting to know I overcame whatever was bothering me and seeing how much I’ve grown compared to before. 

Something that made an impression on me was when my sister said something along the lines of life not being worth the constant stress. I feel like as like as you’re trying your best, you can find a solution to everything.