Author: christopher.neckles

Freshman Seminar has been very helpful for me as I entered Baruch College. The tour of the library was probably the most helpful part of the whole program. I also found the Starr Search information very insightful. The monologue that was assigned was useful because although I am not usually afraid of public speaking, it was nerve racking because I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of the other freshmen who at that time, weren’t friends yet. I do however; believe that this course should have been both graded and that we should have received credits for completing the course.

Christopher Neckles

Monologue

10/6/10

Freshman Seminar

So for those who don’t know, my name is Chris.  I’m 18 and I’m from Brooklyn. My favorite form of recreation is basketball, which is how I heard the quote that I try to live by. My old coach constantly drilled into our heads “if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail”. This is not only true for basketball, but can pretty much be applied to every aspect of life especially school. Here at Baruch College I quickly realized how different it is from high school, where I never studied and aced every test put in front of me. Here, if you fail to prepare for a test or quiz, you are almost guaranteed to fail

A huge shocker for me here at Baruch was the amount of freedom you get. After attending St. Edmund prep, a catholic high school in Brooklyn where teachers breathed down our necks whenever a deadline approached, the amount of responsibility required was unexpected. The amount of people at Baruch was also a shocker. At St. Edmund there was about seven hundred students who were all pretty much similar to me. Here, there are thousands of students from so many different parts of the world. Having a chance to meet and talk with so many different people is exciting and will probably be helpful for the “real world”. My goal is to become a C.P.A after college where a good amount of clients could be from foreign waters. Although I am enjoying Baruch thus far, I have come across complications, the biggest one being professors. Unfortunately, several of my professors aren’t good teachers, my math and sociology professors in particular. Although they are seemingly intelligent, they aren’t too good at transferring their knowledge to us. Now, about four or five weeks into the semester there has been a slight improvement in their teaching techniques and hopefully they continue to make progress. So far my time at Baruch has been successful, and hopefully it will continue to follow that track.

When I am asked, “who do you think you are,” it is fairly difficult to render an answer.  As a matter of fact, who I am is probably too complex to put into words. One key noun that helps define who I am as a person however is “student.” Being a student is my job, and is probably the most potent aspect of my life, which is why I take it as seriously as I do. My goal in life, like everyone else, is to become successful both economically as well as academically and I believe school is the first step of my stairway to triumph.

Up until recent years I realized that I struggled socially. It seemed to be awkward in a sense whenever someone I wasn’t familiar with was in my presence. Now, I developed a fascination with familiarizing myself with people from various parts of the world, especially at Baruch College. Although I’ve only been a student at Baruch for a few weeks I believe I have become more responsible mostly with deadlines. After being part of the family at St. Edmund Preparatory High School, where teachers breath down your neck when deadlines approach, I have learned to organize and plan better so that I can be successful independently.

Although all is well so far at Baruch College, I am concerned that the workload may become overwhelming being that each progressing week professors are beginning to assign more and more work. Hopefully the remaining weeks of the semester are as smooth as it has been so far.

Surprisingly, my first semester of Baruch College has been going pretty well. This school has offered me an opportunity to study alongside a melting pot of fellow students; an experience that has never crossed my path before. As the semester continues, I hope to meet and interact with more people as well as, most importantly, maintain a high GPA. To this point I have not taken many tests or quizzes however I am confident that when the time comes I will do well.