Monthly Archives: October 2010

My name is Bill and I come form Brooklyn. What really struck me about this school was not the diversity of the races. You see I came from a well diversified High school myself where people wear jeans below their thighs and others that came from over seas. What really stuck me was the difference in mind set. In my high school, everyone took a back seat in their education. The goal was to do the least amount of work but also pass. Grade was secondary. I guess that is a good ideal for the business world but its defiantly not here. I met people here who are serious of their education.
I love to help people. When you ask me, I’ll most defiantly attempt to help you to the best of my abilities but unfortunately, I’m not every good at it. So for your own good, don’t ask me for help. I very much hate public speaking. Sometimes I freeze up and most of the time I sway from one spot to the other like I’m on the swings. I had a very bad experience once in a public speech course in high school. I was mumbling my words and swaying as usual but then the most unusual thing happened. Part of my face started to have a nervous twitch and I couldn’t calm down. I looked at the teacher but either he doesn’t notice or was just being mean and told me to keep going. I freaked, paused for a good 10 secs and said “That’s it” and just sat back down. Course I got a failing grade but to be honest, I’d rather get a failing grade then to stay up there looking like a moron.

Lastly, the one moment that empowered me the most was when I got my high school diploma. My school was extremely easy for people to cut and I got pulled in the group mentality of doing the least possible but of course I failed them all. I was what is known as being in the 5 year program. I was left back and at the end I was really on the boarder, If I failed one class I would have still been in High school or at least have done summer school for it. Course I got it hence I’m here and had a great summer on a cruise but that moment where I finally got my diploma was probably the best part of my life.

Relaxing on my hotel balcony in Hawaii sippin the burgerking coffee

Hey, my name is Chi Fai Yuen.  When you first meet me , you will think I’m weird and once you get to know me, you’ll still think I’m weird, but you’ll see that I’m fun to be around.

I enjoy playing handball because it gets me very hyped up to either get an ace or a kill on someone.  I first started playing the sport in freshman year of high school, when I would see all these spiky hair Asian guys playing it and I thought it was cool.  I started playing it and I’ve been addicted ever since.  Collecting sneakers is something I like to do as well since I find that every pair of sneakers has its own background, style and features.  I like variety when it comes to wearing shoes and right now I have around 30 pairs.

I don’t like waiting for anything, such as the ferry/train I have to take everyday.  A lot of time in our lives is wasted simply on waiting for something to happen.  I don’t like riding roller coasters because I do not find them exciting at all.  When I rode the Kingda Ka, everyone around me was screaming in joy but I just sat there the whole ride in complete boredom was also like, “that was it?!” when it ended.

I am afraid of the dark.  When I am trapped within a dark room, I would start to panic.  There were times in my life when I was scared of closing my eyes and seeing the dark.  One time, my friends trapped me in a dark room and I kept banging and banging yelling “let me out!” but they didn’t, so I broke down the door, which was not good at all.

Eating with my friends makes me happy.  I enjoy having a lot of food in front of me and being able to finish all of it.  The conversations that go on during the meals are always interesting.  I enjoy going to Chinatown with my new friends here at Baruch during my breaks.  I also enjoy the many awkward moments in the elevators that we’ve shared so far.

School is starting to get a little rough with all midterms coming up, especially in Anthropology because the professor expects us to know the material for 10 chapters of reading, 20 articles, and a book.  I feel very lost in many classes and do not know why that is the case.

A moment in my life in which I felt guilty was when I stole my friend’s Yugioh card.  It was a very nice holographic card and I wanted it very badly so I told him to make me a sandwich and when he was gone, I put the card in my pocket.  He never noticed the card was gone and I still have the card today and although he probably wouldn’t want it anymore, I would like to return it to him someday.

A moment in my life in which I felt empowered was when I was undefeated as 3^rd singles on the handball team last year.  I led my team to 1^st place in the Staten Island division with many crucial wins.  There was a game in which I was in an 11-1 deficit, but I managed to come back to win the game 21-19, to clinch the match for my team.

My personal theme song would be Jigglypuff’s lullaby song.  Jigglypuff sings it to put people to sleep and I find it very soothing and relaxing.  I like when things are nice and peaceful so this would be the song for me.  I certainly hope I did not put anyone asleep today!

I am at a lake feeding waterfowls and enjoying the beauty of nature.

Home at Last!

So for the next five minutes I’m supposed to give you guys a detailed account of who I am and what my thoughts are. In case you were wondering or not my name is Elizabeth although for the past four years I’ve been known as Eliza.

It wasn’t until this morning that I felt slightly more comfortable with this whole monologue thing. Honestly, how am I supposed to describe myself in five minutes or better yet how am I supposed to stay FOCUSED for five minutes? In my head this whole thing seemed conceited as well as scary, its sort of like letting someone you just met read your diary…if you have one.

So I guess I’ll start now by telling you that I’m a pessimist with mild obsessions, or so I was told by my friend’s hippie ex-boyfriend. To this day that description confuses me but I guess it’s the closest I’ll get to summarizing my personality. I can tell you my likes and dislikes although I’m not so sure that those things make me who I am. I guess its as close as I’ll get to figuring out my thoughts.

Since the age of 8 I’ve been an avid coffee drinker, I love my Blackberry and I used to love tap dancing (I did it for 10 years), and I really love baking not for myself but for others, when I was little I wanted to be a professional catering tap dancer, that obviously isn’t working out for me. My absolute favorite holiday is Christmas and I love it when it snows. I could easily stand here and list off all of the things I like but rest assured that if Facebook has a “like” button for it I’ve probably already clicked it. I have a couple of dislikes but I’d rather not get into them that might be where the pessimist in me emerges.

In my head college was going to guide me on a path to self-discovery. That’s what I thought exactly a year ago as I stood on the corner of 68^th and Park wearing a plaid kilt and a blazer, which can only be described as butch.  I was on my way to school, as a high school senior knowing that I had somehow made to the end. I don’t know if those memories serve a purpose but truthfully I can say that my idea of college was very off. So far I’ve pulled a couple of all nighters and I’ve been reading… a lot. I managed to think that I had everything under control up until two weeks ago when the work started to pile up. I was under the impression that somewhere along the line in the halls of Baruch I was going to have “ahah” moment. Maybe I romanticized it but still…

I guess I can’t say that yet because it’s only been a little over a month. I just expected that I would miraculously come to an understanding of who was supposed to be because quite frankly I have no clue who I am right now it just feels like an in between stage kind of like purgatory only less dead and more unknown. It sounds really strange and almost like a cliché but so what?! Maybe I’m already the person I’m going to be for the rest of my life, maybe I do have things figured out. So what if I am only a compilation of likes and dislikes, memories and thoughts what’s so bad about that? I guess I can’t make decisions until more time passes but for now I’m content knowing that I made it to college and that its not so lonely. The scary part is what lies ahead of me and how that will potentially change me, because that’s the unknown.

I definitely strayed from my original monologue:

To be honest, I held off writing this little speech for the longest time. I wasn’t sure of how to explain to everyone who I am when, in reality, I still haven’t figured that out for myself yet. We had a bunch of prompts for our free writes for these past few weeks. With each and every one of those, I had trouble coming up with a definitive answer for.

For starters, I can provide you with my basic information. My name’s Julia Leung. I’m eighteen years old. I live in Queens, New York, and I have for all my life. I have two younger brothers who enjoy picking on me. But even though I told you all those facts, there wasn’t anything substantial to them.

One thing that I can say about college so far is that it’s definitely not too different from my high school. The student body is large, so I feel at home in the midst of all these people, even though it’s harder to make friends. I wasn’t too happy about going to Baruch and I’m still not. It’s a great school but I have no interest in business. The only reason I feel obliged to be here is because of my parents. I understand that they want me to have a financially stable life, but I don’t believe that the only way to make money is to enter the business field. In retrospect, though, I honestly have no idea what I want to study; I’m incredibly indecisive.

I’m an avid food enthusiast and I pretty much eat anything. I have a short attention span. I’m addicted to the internet. I’m really bad at math, which is one of the reasons I shouldn’t be here. I’m incredibly afraid of pigeons and squirrels. But mostly pigeons. I start panicking when they get too close to me. Unfortunately, this proves to be an obstacle, especially since Baruch is surrounded by them. I’m still afraid of the dark.

I reflect back on these ‘likes and dislikes’, I feel that they’re the only things that are constant in my life right now. I know I said that Baruch isn’t too different from my high school, but there are some major differences. I was incredibly involved back in high school, being on the track team and the yearbook committee. And I realized in June, after the yearbooks were distributed and I had to announce the new captain that would take my place on the track team, things were changing. I understand that change is inevitable, but I was not prepared for how quickly one academic year had passed by. And I certainly wasn’t prepared for all of my friends packing up their belongings and going away for college.

But change is good. Change is something that’s going to happen whether you like it or not, and the only thing left to do is to go with the flow. Life is way too short for you to worry about every little thing. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and it’ll lead you to greater things in the long run. And, hopefully, as I begin my journey here at Baruch, I’ll be able to find some of the answers to these questions in the long run.

And I chose this photo, and doodled all over it, to represent me because I feel like I’m always going to be a kid at heart with an overactive imagination no matter how old I am. It’s bright and colorful and sort of obnoxious – everything that I believe myself to be.

     Hi, my name is William Wong. I was born in New York and grew up on Staten Island. I moved to Queens in my junior year of high school. I’m not afraid of much. However, I am scared of dark places because it gets me depressed and scared. Light places make me happy and seeing cute dogs make me happy.                                       

     A few important things in my life are my family, friends and money. My family is important to me because without them, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I love my parents most of the time. I have one older brother whom graduated baruch. I am now following his footsteps. My friends are just as important to me because without them, life would be really boring.

     One time I felt really guilty was when my parents found out I was cutting school. It was pretty scary because I did’nt know what they were going to do to me. But fortunately they didnt go crazy and were just really disappointed in me. A moment I felt empowered was when I was a little kid playing with legoes. I felt like god of the lego world. My theme song is Billionaire by Travie McCoy.

    I love to do a variety of things. I like to play poker at the moment. I identify myself with the asian culture. I have many roles I play in life. I play the roles of a son and a freshmen college student. I also play the role of a disappointed job hunter. Also I play the role of a resident of New York City.

    College is going pretty well. My biggest challenge is math at the moment. I know calculus is hard but I’m going to study hard to make sure I pass the class. I just had my first test and I did pretty well. The thing I enjoy most about college is the fact that its in the city. Theres just so many choices to eat. In High school, I didnt have so many options. Now that I’m in Baruch theres restuarants everywhere. I’ve met a lot of new friends so far and hopefully everything continues to go smoothly.

I love toys and sometimes I pretend I'm a ninja.

Hello everyone my name is Daniel Kai Shum. I am from Flushing, Queens and soon moved to Great Neck to only move back to Flushing. I identify myself as a twenty something year old trapped in a ten year old boys body. As you can see I look like a kid but I am very self reliant doing almost everything by myself. My interests include candy I love all candy especially gummy bears but I would only eat the green and white ones. Legos is on of my favorite past times and till this day I continue to play. However even though I am still like a kid in some ways, I am a very self reliant hard working student. I currently live by myself paying the bills and holding three jobs while attending college.

College so far does not provide any difficulties. It seems quite easy to me making it feel like high school. The days are long especially with the huge breaks. To me college is just like another high school. However during high school my classes usually ran from ten to twelve challenging me to manage my time wisely. Most of the time it is procrastination that hinders me and whenever I am on the computer I am always going “damn facebook got me again”.

My greatest fears include heights and scary movies. For one why would I want to go on a roller coaster or six flags for a great deal of money in order to be frightened. I find no enjoyment in that and it only makes me feel uncomfortable. In addition who likes crazy movies. Is it worth it to get scared for ten bucks? I can go scream at you or hide in the closet and scary you for ten bucks. I really don’t mind taking that money off your hand.

The roles I play in my life is basically an independent student working hard to make it big. College is just another obstacle to get over. Again I am a twenty something year old stuck in an ten year olds body.

The following might differ (slightly) from my performance in class…

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, my name is Adam and I will waste the next 5 minutes of your lives.

I am absolutely terrified of making public speeches. I just find it really hard to stand in middle of a room with everyone’s eyes on me. I get really tense and my legs start shaking. I’m sorry I need to sit down.

Yes, this is better. What can I say about myself? Similar to everyone else here, I am a freshman, I’m from queens. I went to Grover Cleveland High school, in which similar to Bill’s high school barely passing is an achievement. I took 4 years of honors math, honors math A, honors math B, AP Calculus and AP Statistics, passed each.

I love keeping fish, it started with me stealing my mom’s betta fish. I got the little guy a 10 gallon tank and he’s been living happily ever since, he even swims up to me every time I’m next to his tank.

I am absolutely terrified of wasps. A couple years back my parents took me to Pennsylvania for vacation, I was so terrified I walked around with a can of bug spray. I also I think I beat the world record in a 200 meter run because I used a different spray (one for roaches and ants) and apparently it does not kill wasps. So I just pissed them off and ran like hell.

I can’t get myself to do my work. When I try to I immediately get tired. I procrastinate a lot. Before I even get to my work I need to take a shower, I just have to. If for whatever reason I just stop doing the work I’m fine and awake, the second I get to it. I’m tired and sleepy.

Okay, was that 5 minutes?

Yeah, I don’t got anything else. Thank you everyone for your time.

I chose the chameleon, because I tend to blend into my surroundings. I prefer sitting back and spectating, rather than actively taking part.

I’m Alex, I was born and raised in Queens. I went to bayside high school in bayside Queens and now I go to Baruch college. On the surface I may seem like your average tall, skinny teenager. However once you find out more about me like what I like, dislike, what roles I play, etc you start to find out how unique I really am. I’m a son, a brother, a student, and for the last three years I’ve been a godfather. one of the things that I’m really into is sports. I have been a Mets fan all my life and a Jets fan since I was ten. I actually spent most of last summer at citi field watching the Mets lose. Another thing that I like a lot is cars especially classic cars. I really like old mustangs and corvettes, come to think of it I actually like most classic muscle cars. Besides that I’m into video games and I’m starting to get into tech. there are only a couple of things that I don’t like. One thing I don’t like is cold weather. As soon as it dips below sixty degrees it starts to bug me. Another thing I don’t like is long commutes. Living in Queens and going to school in the city means my commute is between an hour and an hour and a half and I cant stand it. I also don’t like insects especially spiders. Ever since I was a kid I’ve never liked bugs and spiders have always creeped me out. The people who are most important to me are definitely my family. Over the years whenever I’ve needed help my family has been there. My College career has been going pretty well. The only thing I’m having a little trouble with is writing essays. I’ve never really liked writing and now I have to write an essay every few weeks. I’m sure that in a few weeks I’ll get used to it. Besides that college hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. I’ve been doing pretty well even with all the added responsibility and all my professors are pretty cool.

l.

My Name is Thomas Brock and I’m 18 years old. I have lived in Ridgewood, New York all my life. I went to High School at Brooklyn Tech. I am pretty shy and won’t really talk unless someone else talks to me first. I am slowly getting used to college life at Baruch. I’m getting used to the subtle differences from high school, like the higher work load and lower number of classes. I enjoy the long breaks between classes because it gives me time to do other things and it is nice to take a break from work. I am adjusting to life at Baruch nicely and have joined the archery club. I’m hoping to meet new people, learn new things and improve my communication and public speaking skills. I am also hoping to figure out what I would want to major in. Baruch will hopefully force me to break my habit of procrastinating, which I have had as long as I can remember. The moment when I felt the most embarrassed was when I used to play baseball. I only played because I thought my father wanted me to, but I was terrible only getting maybe 2 hits that weren’t fouls in over 3 years of playing. A moment when I felt empowered was when I used to tutor in math. It felt great to feel like you were helping someone. The student who I tutored had their math scores improve a lot. I had to stop this though, because in High School my math grades started to drop. The thing I like the most is to hang out with my friends. The thing that I hate the most is Public Speaking. I can’t deal with it and every solution I can come up with just causes more problems. I just have a hard time getting used to talking to a room full of strangers. I also dislike creative writing because it is hard to get a good idea. Free writing is also bad for me because it feels unnatural for me to just come up with ideas without thinking about them first. My fears are failure, because I don’t want to disappoint myself or my family and friends, and heights. The second fear isn’t the fear of being high up, but falling from high up. The roles that I play in my life are son, brother, friend, and student. My family and friends are the most important thing to me because they help me and guide me. I don’t really have a motto or anything like that.

Self-Portrait

I’m pretty shy and keep to myself for the most part. I have a hard time getting to know new people and I think sometimes I am aversive towards talking to them. I like to take things slowly and don’t like being rushed. Also, back when I used to play sports I was mediocre on offense but great on defense. I was even my team’s goalkeeper in soccer. So since we see each other everyday, I’ll post an image representative of myself instead of my own picture. So I chose this image of a turtle. Which has a shell which it can use to hide from things and for protection and defense from other things. It also moves slowly. So the picture is based off of the qualities I see myself having.

Monologue

Hi everyone, my name is Faizan Sohail. I am a freshman here at Baruch College. I don’t know what I am going to major in yet but I’ll figure it out eventually. The thing I treasure the most in life is my family. I love them all and I would not be the person I am if it were not for them. I identify myself by my family and the traditions I carry from Pakistan. The roles I take in my life include son, uncle, brother and student. My father is the most important person to me in my life. He has sacrificed a lot and done so much just so that I could make it to college and live the comfortable lifestyle that I do.

What I fear is losing friends. Back in my old high school I had made a lot of friendships with many decent people. Friendships take a long time to build and saying good-bye was one of the most painful things I had to do in my life. A lot of my friends went abroad to study and I will miss them deeply. We shared many good times. Spending time with my high school gang was what made me happy.

School is going fine. The biggest transition is time management. Managing a job and school is hard. I have a job to help me pay for tuition and books so it’s not just something I can drop at a moment’s notice. I tend to procrastinate a lot which isn’t good. Many of my professor’s give a lot of assignments and keeping track of each one is a biggest challenge. The thing I like most about Baruch is the freedom. There are lots of good restaurants and shops to browse on my spare time. Baruch is in the heart of Manhattan so there really is no end to the amount of places to visit.

I feel guilty whenever I see food wasted because I know a lot of people who don’t have enough food to feed themselves or their children. My motto is “work hard and you will succeed because nothing worth getting is easy to obtain”. I live by this because I can’t expect to do my parents proud by just being a bum. I have to work hard and only then can I hope to succeed and make them proud.

This is me at my brother's wedding. I see myself as someone who is loyal to his family and his parents over anything else in life. I am proud to be from Pakistan and to have such a great mother and father.