My first semester at Baruch mostly did meet my expectations. I suppose that is because my idea of a “bad college” had not been fully met. Though, some of the bad things that did occur soured my expectations of Baruch.

I will begin with all the things I liked about Baruch. I loved all my classes and felt I learned a lot from them. The teachers were indeed helpful. The cafeteria has a good variety of meals. To me, the library is probably the best accomplishment. In the library there’s usually a place to sit and study, either on the couches or the seats on the higher floors that have a lot of space to accommodate students. There are even little study pods where you can go to if you need to study comfortably. Renting laptops for varying hours of use is also available. The library also has outlets in the tables in case your device needs charging. The only sad thing is the lack of books available since it has become harder for Baruch to obtain the money for them.

Now I’ll switch to the bad things at Baruch. Firstly, the system for clubs and organizations is CRAP. In the beginning of the semester I had tried to enter the Math Club but they didn’t even have a room yet. So I left them a letter in the student info place. They never got back to me, which led me to join another club. Joining math club would have probably helped me do better on my Math class but oh well. This leads me to my next concern, spreading the awareness of such clubs. Unless you happen to read a flyer (that costs money) on a wall full of flyers talking about a club then it’s unlikely you would know anything about such clubs. It would’ve have been WAAAAAYYY better to just send a description of each AVAILABLE club to every student through e-mail instead. Plus, with every new club member comes a chance to put something new on a student’s resume which gives the student a better chance at a good job that in turn gives the school prestige through its successful students. The bathrooms are by no means excluded from this rant. The bathrooms hardly have soap in their dispensers. Also, they have a horrible faucet system that sometimes doesn’t even allow you to wash both hands at once. Eww?

As for myself, I think I did average this semester, which is bad. The fact that I’m not sure I got A’s or even B’s in some of my classes is very disappointing. If I could redo the semester over again I would have studied more and gone to the SACCs help center to get tutored. This experience has allowed me to change my attitude and take things more seriously than I’ve been doing. College, Baruch College, has taught me to discipline myself more in my studies and to become a better student.

Now that I’m at the end of my first semester as a Baruch college student, I can honestly say I am going to enjoy the month of vacation. This semester wasn’t an easy one but every year of school gets harder and harder. I know everyone says that the first semester of college is your easiest, well I need to get ready for all the hard work awaiting me in the coming semesters. The semester definitely lived up to my exceptions. I made some close friends and had some fun. School is school as usual and I’m happy I’m adapting. Since starting at Baruch, I think I’ve grown up a little more. I think I am figuring out what I really want to do with my life. I wouldn’t do anything differently if I could. I live by the belief that everything happens for a reason and if I went back in time and changed things, I would just be changing myself as  person and my circumstances.

My experience at Baruch has lived up to my expectations.  I expected it to be hard and a lot of work and it was.  I think my first semester at Baruch went alright.  My grades probably could have been better but I like all of the people I have met.  What i would do differently during my first semester if I could do it all again is I would probably study a little better and take my classes more serious.  I have changed a lot since I started Baruch.  I think I am more responsible.  I learned how to juggle softball and school, but mostly get all of my work done.

My first semester at Baruch has gone by really quickly. Maybe since I only have class 4 days a week, it feels a lot faster than high school. I am proud of myself because I finally decided what I actually want to do in my life and that is be an electrical engineer. before coming to Baruch, I wasn’t sure what i was going to do but I chose to be an accountant. After a while, I thought about and discovered how much I actually hate business and would much rather prefer doing math and science related stuff. Dealing with electronic things is also my specialty because I have done it all my life. I am not extremely happy with my schedule next semester because I am going to have a 7:50 AM class on Fridays but I’ll still only have 4 classes. I feel that I have done pretty well in all my classes and I will probably be happy with my grades. As long as I have a GPA of 2.5 to actually be able to transfer, I will be happy. Hopefully I enjoy my last semester at Baruch in the Spring and I hope I  have many other good ones at City College. Now, all I have to do is get my 24 credits and that 2.5 GPA. Hope I can make it!!!

What  I like most about a regular school lay is going through my apartment door and that feeling of being relaxed. I just take a sigh of relief and go straight to my bed. It is an awesome feeling. it is also good that there are many thing to do during a break, which can be eating, going to the computer lab and do homework, gym or other things. Whenever i feel like having a good time, i go over to Queens to drink and party with some friends.

It just sucks that the 4and 6 trains are always packed. It was so much easier taking the b or D trains to my old High School. This is one of the reasons I want to go to City College instead. Not only are the trains always packed, but the elevators are almost as bad. They always get packed and it makes it hard to get to my Math class. Paying all this money for books, food, and metrocards also sucks.

I would probably identify myself as a short, smart and fun little kid. I would say I like to be alone sometimes and have a few minutes for myself. My most important job is being the man of the house. I have to protect my family and fix anything around the house, which has even included painting the apartment. My personal motto is, “el bago trabaja dos veces” which translates into the lazy person works twice. Whenever I decide to be lazy, it comes back to me and requires me to do more than I originally had to.

The most important thing to me in my life are God, my family and friends. Having food and a place to live are also extremely important. Without these things, there aren’t many reasons to live.

My first semester at baruch is almost over and must i say it flew by quite fast. The first semester has helped me become more responsible. Im happy that we had such a great LC and everyone got along so well. If we werent in a LC i dont think the semester would of gone as smoothly.  One thing i would change about this semester is definitely taking sociology much more seriously and probably not stressing over next semesters schedule. Since starting Baruch i think i have matured quite a bit. The transition from high school to college wasn’t hard but it was something new and i believe i made a good transition. The first semester made me more responsible and a bit less lazy. Lets see how next semester goes when we are all in different classes and there is no more LC.

Growing up in a Greek community, the idea of becoming successful was in everyone’s mind. The parents were telling the youth to go to school and become educated, the priests were advising the kids on how to become good people, and the coaches were not only coaching but training the youth to be strong individuals, not only on the court, but off the court as well.

Today, i have these people to thank, for i am heading in the right direction without there help now; and this is how they set it up, to raise children so that they can survive on there own. The main people who raised me to become the man i am now are my parents and my brother. There is no way i would have made it into Baruch without there constant nagging and arguing. I guess you can say i am motivation by pain, because they told me exactly what my life would be like if i did not attend  college, and it hurt.

The college experience so far is just a lot of work. I do not believe in going to college for “the experience”, but rather just to learn and move on toward my real life after school. I attend classes and try my best to do well, but i do not forget that the happy cows are the ones which produce the best meat. I guess what I am trying to say is that it is those who enjoy themselves in school are the ones who do well. But not too much partying and laughing, because just like everything in like, there is always a limit.

I am a son and a brother and many more. A student, an athlete. My top three concerns about freshman year are to start college with good studying habits, have fun, and have some more fun. Considering the fact that Baruch does not have a big college life campus, the only difference I feel so far in Baruch when comparing it to high school is the freedom, and the teachers are a lot worse. I think that after my first year at Baruch, i will be more determined to finish college and succeed in whatever i do. I strongly feel that i can accomplish whatever i put my mind into. I understand that this is not done as easy as it is said, but i have the determination to accomplish anything i desire and clear anything that comes in my way. That is who i am.

Kyle Allen

Freshman Seminar

Monologue

One of the most embarrassing moments of my life occurred during the summer before my freshman year in college. The moment i’m referring to is when I broke one of my guitar strings at a show I played early that summer. This is a moment that I will not only remember for the rest of my life, but it also changed the way I will forever look at that show.

I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I was lucky enough to have off from school, but I still got up bright and early. I was filled with anxiety because it was my first show with the new band, that I had joined earlier in the year. Not only was it my first show with them, but it was also their first show in quite some time. I remember constantly texting the singer of my band, asking when we were getting together to practice, and what time we were going on that night. He seemed very calm and collected compared to me, which for some reason made me even more nervous. We finally met up at the drummer’s house around four o’clock that afternoon. We quickly set up out equipment, and ran through out set list for the night. After we finished practicing, we starting talking about our expectations for the night as we packed up our equipment. This was a very big show for us, because it was the first true show of the summer and a few big name Staten Island bands were playing.

After our equipment was all packed in the cars we made our way to the show. Upon arrival there was barely anyone at the venue, but this didn’t worry me because it was still early in the night. As it got closer to six thirty (our set time) we started to set up out equipment on the stage. This was always the scariest part of playing shows for me because I always wanted to make sure everything sounded right, and that our sound levels were perfect. The clock struck six thirty and we began our set. As we started our first song the room started to fill with people and all of my anxiety and nervousness went away.

We were three songs into the set and everything had went perfectly so far. As the intro to our fourth song began, my guitar started to feel strange. I got swept up in the song and completely forgot about this. Then about a minute or so into the song I went to hit a chord, and I felt and odd snap, and a weird noise came from my guitar. I prayed that I hadn’t broken a string, but as I looked at my guitar I soon learned that I had. I felt so embarrassed as I stood there unable to play along with the rest of my bandmates. Thankfully a friend of mine, also in a band quickly gave me his guitar to play, but the damage had already been done.

The rest of the show was amazing. My band got a lot of praise from our peers and we even got the chance to share the stage with a member of one of our favorite bands. Regardless of all this I will always remember the feeling of embarrassment I felt when that string on my guitar broke.

This is a picture from me at one of the last shows i played this summer. For some reason the girl that takes pictures for my bands always catches me when i have my mouth wide open.