Author Archives: rajkumar.katta

First I wanted to clear up a misconception I feel many people might have with what I aspire to be, that it is a life you choose when you are good for nothing. I take my time to reference this because, I think many people assume that a traditional nomadic life doesn’t get you anywhere. That maybe true if you idea of getting somewhere revolves around climbing the social or economical ladder. Mine doesn’t. I like knowledge, discovery through exploration, and nature. There is one way to achieve all three.

I mentioned in class that I wanted to be a nomad, I still stand by that–it wasn’t a joke. I know the idea itself seems absurd. The times are gone, where one could venture out into the world unexpectedly of what lies ahead, and truly live life exploring the vastness of the world as an adventurer.  I wanted to be like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon; like Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, free from everything and living life on the edge. Unfortunately their world is different from ours.  In ours, our life is laid out in front of us. The milestones in life are quite the same for most people throughout the world now, you are born –> go to school/college –> find a job –> get married –> have kids –> hopefully have grand kids –> retire –> go fishing –> and finally be buried, all this with minor variations.  It is boring.  For those accustomed to it, it is a great life to have, from me it is lacking so much.

I guess modern nomadic experiences can be similar to traditional ones. Entrepreneurship maybe the answer, or a substitute and I think Baruch at the most part can enhance the entrepreneur within me. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that I don’t care much for money, even though amongst friends and family I might show aspiration to be richer than Bill Gates. Whether that is even remotely possible is not important, but it is important that Baruch can help me achieve the fundamental aims that I’ve carried with me for a long time. To gain knowledge, and explore/discover and prevent people continuing to harm nature/Earth.

I assume my goals are fairly different from most others, its just the way it is. Nonetheless other peoples views are also fairly important to me and surely will help me grow as a person. Baruch has plenty of faculty and students that are intelligent, and unique. Hopefully I will learn from a lot from them over the next few years. So far the experience has been awesome, it has definitely lived up to my expectations, and even though I haven’t noticed any immediate and recognizable change within me, I am sure in some unconscious way my time at Baruch has had an effect on who I am and most probably will continue to do so.  I am looking forward to my time here.

I can’t seem to find my initial monologue, I’ll start fresh I guess..

I don’t know what to do with my life, it doesn’t bother me much but it freaks my family out. Ideally I should have figured this out already, in fact I should be actively pursuing some sort of goal in some field, that is not so. It isn’t exciting to plan things out anyway. I don’t know where the next 4 years will take me in Baruch, but I know that these last few weeks have been different, sweet and sour, and much more demanding compared to H.S. Its been repeated again and again, but seriously the commute sucks. Where it took me 20 minutes to get to h.s, it takes me 3 times as much to get to Baruch. On the bright side, the environment is more exciting. The profs. seem okay but they seem at par with h.s teachers, not much different. The pace is faster though, which isn’t so bad. The best and worst part about this semester is probably the breaks, it really stretches the day. SO Baruch is a mixture of good and bad, hopefully the bad will in time subside. Hoping for some breakthroughs in the future but not planning it, what happens next? Gotta wait and find out!

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.