It’s always really hard for me to answer a question that asks me who I think I am, because I always go into deep thought and make things complicated for myself. I’ll start off with the basics. My name is Tasneema Sobhany and I’m 17 years old. I am Bengali and I was raised in a conflicting hybrid of South Asian and Western culture. I guess you can say I’m social, but at the same time I’m shy. I’ve broken out of the shell that I was in for a couple of years, but not completely; it’s a process. I’m a very caring and compassionate person, and that can tend to go really well or really horribly for me. I can be really hard on myself because I always pass the chance of pushing myself to my fullest due to laziness and stubbornness.
The biggest concern for me as I started attending Baruch was and is succeeding academically. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to handle the classes, manage my time wisely (because I’m probably one of the worst when it comes to procrastination and time management), but I was reassured because my high school prepared me really well for long lectures and intense assignments. …Not that I tried my best on those assignments, but it made me familiar with the college work I face now.
A big, big concern that I had and still kind of have is about meeting the right kind of people: the right friends, the right classmates. And to me, it all comes down to first impressions and who you click with off the bat. And because I was very shy and self conscious in high school and opened up at an extremely slow pace, I didn’t know if I was capable of making my existence a little more known on such a huge commuter campus.
And I can’t think of a third concern right now.
My college experience is and will be so much more different than my high school experience, because I’m taking college on a much more serious level; it’s my time to really show myself what I have in me to do extremely well. I’m also trying to have fun, so it’ll be hard finding a balance, but it’ll come about. On top of that, I’m being more social and that’s already made my college experience different because I’m talking to more people. =) Everyone’s attitude in college is on a distinctly different level than of those in high school: no one cares. And I think that will make a big impact on my college experience because I have to force myself to be more independent and successful at being independent.
I honestly do not know how this first year of college will change me. I will definitely get beaten up by more than one assignment because I can’t manage my time, and I’ll probably suffer terribly. That’ll change things for the better. I really can’t say about anything else; I guess we’ll see.