Monthly Archives: September 2010

1. I think I’m an outgoing personality who has used my personality to get by in school up to this point. I have the ability to do very well here at Baruch, but I have to keep my focus on my work and not get lured into the city life. Commuting from Long Island definatly helps but at the same time I can come to the city anytime I want. I’m a good person although I do sometimes come off as obnoxious and arrogant, but I believe thats because I have an inner confidence in myself. I have no complaints or regrets about anything that I’ve done in my life and I look forward to the next four years.

2. My biggest concern about Baruch is the commute. I commuted around an hour and twenty minutes each way and the day is just very long. I can get work done on the train but I’m worried the commute is gonna burn me out. I’m concerned about the work load because I coasted through the last 3 years of high school. I was voted worst case of senioritis in my graduating class for a reason. I’m concerned about the city life. I think I got my of my partying out of my system by now, but the city’s a whole other animal.

3. Baruch is completly different from high school because it’s a completly independant experience with no one holding your hand. I didn’t really rely on the hand holding in high school and did my own think, it was still a safety blanket. I like the independance and I was ready to get away from high school and the cliques that go along with it. i felt as though kids had stopped maturing at my high school and it was time to grow up. Going to Baruch and dealing with everything that goes along with it, it forces you to grow up.

4. I don’t think my first year of college will change me at all. I don’t really forsee a “growing” experience. I think the only thing I will do is improve my study habits but other than that I am who I am.

Who are you? Who am I? This is something that cannot be answered with words, or descriptions. Nothing I write or say will make you understand who I am. I don’t mean to avoid the question, but it’s frustrating. I like to look at things from different angles then my own because my position can always change. Trying to think of who I am is too difficult, not because I’m so complicated, but because I think so many things. I can tell you who I think YOU are because of the things I know about you and what you say and do. It’s limited and compact. That doesn’t mean you agree with this or that’s it right, it probably isn’t. Who YOU think YOU are is entirely more elaborate, and infinitely more difficult to answer. So how can I place all those years of actions and thoughts into a digestible conclusion of who I am? I can answer I’m nice, I’m cool, I’m relaxed. That’s not true though, because I’m also angry, I’m a geek, and I’m frantic. Everyone is like this; I’m not alone.

In the movie Anger Management Adam Sandler plays an uptight everyday office man. He is required to attend Anger Management classes with the teacher being Jack Nicholson. In the very first meeting Nicholson asks Sandler to answer the question, who are you?

Click here for video and watch until around 3:05 (It’s about a minute).

The point of this is to say there is no right answer. I know that whatever I write here will be acceptable, but it won’t be accepted. What someone thinks of me is what they see me say and do. Not talking about myself but just normal, or possibly abnormal, everyday interactions. I also know the purpose is just to express our opinions and feelings, but it always comes out feeling fake, forced and ultimately without real effect. I could talk about practically anything but myself.

Now I can easily answer the last three questions in the next 3 words. I don’t know. You want my most immediate concerns? I hope I won’t fail this blog because I’ve gone all philosophical. I hope I won’t get motion sickness on the bus… again, and I hope I can grow a full beard someday. I don’t worry much though, I have hope. And I certainly hope college will offer some real impact on my life that high School never could. This can lead into change and how I feel it only ever comes from new realization; it wouldn’t be new if I knew what it was. College will give me something worth changing for, and i know I have the capacity to change greatly, but I can’t begin to imagine what and how. If I imagine something, and I don’t change immediately, then I’d be lying to write that down. So I suppose I’m hopeful; If I think of myself as anything, it’s open and optimistic. The possibilities are endless.

I don’t know where to start. Taking the time to sit down and evaluate who you really are is one of the hardest things to do. At least that’s what I think.  I’d say I’m a pretty approachable and cool guy. I’m a gentleman and a nice person.I like to make people laugh. Believe it or not, in high school i even earned nicknames like “gentle giant”, “little bear” and friends who couldn’t say my full name at first, called me “ginger”. -_-“.  I’m very competitive. I like to WIN! I’m a winner. “2nd place just means your the first loser” – Kobe Bryant. I like to go out and prove people wrong. There’s no better feeling then knowing your the best at what you do.

Freshman year at Baruch is going really really good for me. There’s the work but you gotta expect that. Nothing comes easy.  One of the main concerns i hold is procrastinating. I’m trying my best not to and I have a feeling that college is gonna help me build on the skills i need.  Another concern I have is getting a job or internship. I want to be successful and I wanna start from the beginning and work my way up. There are some people that are born successful and there are others that sweat, bleed, and cry to make things happen. That would be me. My final concern is not to stain my grades in anyway. I’m a perfectionist and I want to be at the peak of my academic career. In high school I made mistakes but I don’t want any more of that in college and beyond. Gotta get that 4.0!

My Baruch experience will push my work ethic to whole new heights. From what I have learned so far the key to doing well in college and just life in general is to be interactive.  You gotta build on your connections. That’s exactly what I have been trying to do. High school didn’t offer as many opportunities as college has been. To be honest, College just makes high school seem like a joke.

How will my first year of college change me? I think i pretty much covered it. I’m much more serious. Its gonna change my work ethic and I’m gonna be more socially active.

P.S. :  A friend of mine introduced me to this video. It made a good impression on me, hopefully you guys will like it in one way or another. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NQREuc7JX8

I think that I think too much sometimes. It doesn’t seem like a big problem, but it is. For example it has already been more than an hour while I am trying to contemplate what exactly I should write in this blog. So I said “man, just do it.” That’s the Nike logo by the way.  Writing does this to me, it seems however I choose to express myself on paper, it just isn’t good enough for me. How ironic is that?  They are my thoughts and they are not good enough for me. What a difficult being the mind is, always in conflict. I know why it is though; I am always comparing myself to others. The other day I was reading the Federalist Essay No.10 and No.51 by James Madison for one of my classes, and the entire time I was admiring his writing and questioning my own. That’s where Baruch comes in.

It is one of my concerns that I might not able to manage my time well enough if I continue to over think the way I do. Yes it often leads me to something I feel contempt with but at the cost of the precious time that I could have used elsewhere. I sincerely hope that my experience at Baruch can help me formulate my thoughts quicker and deliver them accurately both through speaking and on paper. Although I wish to learn a lot from my time a Baruch, better communication skills and better writing are the primary goals that I seek to achieve.

Baruch is different from High School, in that you get to choose what you want to do and focus on. There is also plenty of time in between classes to relax, clear your head or catch-up on anything that you feel is necessary to learn and grow from. I already feel and can see the transformation that I have gone through in such short span of time that I have attended Baruch. It honestly made me more responsible, and I am beginning to take things more seriously. The future seems bright at Baruch and I anxiously await it.

DUE: Saturday, September 18, 2010

The theme for this year’s PERFORMING DIASPORAS: IDENTITIES IN MOTION project is “Who Do You Think You Are?”  Reflect on the following four questions, and craft a response of no more than 500 words.  Feel free to intergrate media into your post!
a) Tell us who you think YOU are!
b) Share your top 3 concerns about your freshmen year at Baruch College and explain why.
c) So far, what do you think will make your Baruch College experience different from your high school experience?
d) How do you think your first year at College will change you?