Most people would describe me as a weird person, but I must correct their rhetoric. I am weird in a sense that I have a cornucopia of traits that makes me a unique individual. I’m smart, but can downplay my intellect. I love history and politics, but never do I ever want to become a politician. I enjoy intellectual debates and I am unafraid of admitting that I am wrong since no one is perfect. Also, I like being around positive people and being the person who can turn your frown upside down. And, as much as I love to play sports, I love to eat as well. When placed in an unfamiliar environment, such as on the first day at Baruch College, I can be a quiet person, but that doesn’t mean I am drifted in thought. I’m an analytical person who thinks that it is best to observe my surroundings before making my presence known.
I don’t want to make an impression that I am a selfish person. If you see that my class readings are annotated accordingly or that I make a Harvard style outline based on class notes and outside research, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone. Unlike high school, college is voluntary–you pay to learn. Therefore, before classes started, I realized that I must up the ante and put more effort into this task at hand (getting a college degree). One of my goals for freshman year is to achieve the 4.0 grade point average. To most of my friends, just being able to plow through their coursework is daunting. But, I attended a high school (Brooklyn Technical H.S.) that has taught me that the key to success is being able to set yourself apart from the rest. In other words, it is better to set high expectations for yourself and strive to accomplish those goals. Even if you fall short, you will end up achieving more than you would if you had aimed low.
I would be lying if I said that my first full week was a breeze, but it was not “mission impossible.” I wasn’t worried about making new friends. I was more concerned with time management when just a day after I received a syllabus for each class, I had to have read sixty plus pages of size eight, single spaced, and times new roman font, give perfect solutions for calculus homework, and research for philosophy. “They won’t hold your hand in college,” is what most of my high school teachers said.
In high school, I had a ten o’clock bedtime, I never used a planner, and procrastinated a lot. However, I wasn’t a bad student (I finished with a ninety five-ish cumulative average and attained AP Scholar with Distinction), I just feel like I didn’t exhibit my full potential.
Freshman year is a clean slate. I’m more organized, determined, and confident. I must begin my college years on a good note.
