Author: Katherine Carol

Last year, I thought I was a writer. Slowly, my identity began to morph, to adapt to what I thought a writer was. I was blogging constantly, devouring fiction, and carrying my little black notebook around, whipping it out in moments of spontaneous inspiration. Last summer, I thought I was an artist. I would sit on my couch and watch Work of Art on Bravo and say, “Yes. That is what I want to do!” I looked through my folders for all those neglected student passes to the MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Last month, I thought I was a psychologist. I would sit at my computer and read about how those who have creative thought processes have similar brain activity as those who are schizophrenic and about the new case studies that prove that being shy is genetic.  Last week, I thought I was a neuroscientist. I was fascinated, completely entranced by what the brain could do, what it is capable of.  

Next week, I may be a mathematician (just kidding. If there is one thing I know I’ll never be into, it’s math). I may be a philosopher, a traveler or a photographer. Baruch may mold me into an anthropologist next semester, or an I/O psychologist next year. I know for a fact that I will change, and that Baruch will aid me in that transformation.

Something I know that will change within this first year is my sense of independence. I already feel it simmering as I become more and more accustomed to Baruch’s culture.

Some concerns  — I fear that I won’t have time to do everything I want to. I’d like to study abroad, I’d like to join the photography club, the writer’s society. I’d like to take courses in Italian language and fashion marketing. I know that I don’t have to do all of this in my first year, but it is a general concern of mine — that there just isn’t enough time to accomplish everything I’d like. I’m also afraid that I won’t create strong friendships. Everyone always says that your college friends are those friends that stay with you for the rest of your life. I know it’s only been about four weeks, but it still worries me. How can you hold onto friendships in a school where the people you are with changes every 4 to 5 months. Hopefully, as time goes on, these concerns will be dismissed.  I sure hope so!

Coming to Baruch, I was expecting a couple of things — lengthy commutes, confusion getting to and from classes, trouble making few friends right off the bat because of the commutes and confusion. It seems as though exactly this has come from my first days at Baruch. Some things that I am surprised by? As obvious and ridiculous as it may sound, the fact that it’s a business school. When I was looking into schools, I looked at Baruch as a final resort since I am 99.7% sure I’m going to become a liberal arts major — the speakers at all of the Freshman Information Sessions kept pushing the fact that it wasn’t just a business school, and that their trying to dispose of this stigma — but almost every class I’ve sat in, I’ve heard the words “I know most of you are going into business …”. I kind of feel like a square peg being forced into a roundhole. I don’t know how I feel about that yet.

I hope that the school proves to be liberal enough — although I knew coming in, I’d be dealing with a business-centric school, I’d heard a lot about Baruch’s commitment to making you as cultured, academically, as possible. I hope that this stands true.