Author Archives: tina.li

I also did not learn much from this workshop for this was not the first one of its kind that I had attended. Many of the things that the speaker mentioned was already common knowledge to those of us who have attended these sessions before. I think that the only thing that I gained from this workshop was the knowledge of STARR Career Development Center. I had known about its existence but I wasn’t aware of its many resources and now I will definitely try to use them to my advantage. Everything that was mentioned or discussed in the workshop can be found on the STARR Career Development Center’s website. The worksheets that they handed out were helpful because they are a physical form of the  information that can be found online.

Honestly  I didn’t get much out of the panel discussion. The amount of people in the room and the faulty equipment made it hard for me to focus on the speakers and take in what they were saying.

The main point that I got after sitting through the workshop was the importance of identity and how it is up to yourself to decide what your identity is going to be. Take the students at Baruch for example, we all come from very different backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities. We grew up in different households with different traditions, beliefs, and values. Some of us may have had to overcome difficulties that could never have been imagined by others who were more fortunate. Growing up, Charles Li, the author of The Bitter Sea, faced many obstacles in terms of identity and an unstable childhood. As he came of age, he transformed from a little boy who would constantly seek attention and approval from his manipulative father to a Chinese American who learned the importance of identity and used that to further his own ambitions and goals in life.

“Whatever Will Be Will Be”

That’s my life motto, is, was, and probably always will be. If I were to tell you my life story, the recurring theme could easily be summed up by this quote. I believe in fate, I believe in predestination, I believe in the purpose of life. I’ve never been the luckiest girl in the world and I’m probably not the unluckiest one either but I sure have had my fair share of bad luck with pretty good outcomes.

My life had been pretty normal and decent until I turned 8. I lived in a three family home in Brooklyn and my parents owned a Chinese takeout restaurant down the block, life was pretty simple and normal for an 8 year old. A series of bad financial decisions forced my parents to sell the restaurant, move to Pennsylvania, and buy a new restaurant there. Therefore, my parents moved out of the house leaving me in the care of my grandmother. Year after year, my parents tried to sell the restaurant in Pennsylvania because they wanted to be closer to me but of course, that didn’t work out either. Today, I have realized that not having my parents around at such a young age forced me to learn how to take care of myself without any parental guidance. That’s part of the reason why I am so independent and self-sufficient today. I didn’t have parents to come home to when I was picked on at school, I didn’t have parents to punish me when I got bad grades, I didn’t have parents to guide me and nurture me when I was lost. I had no other choice but to suck it up and learn how to deal with it by myself because I knew that at the end of the day, my parents were out there making a living so that they could support me.

This just goes to show that no matter how hard my parents tried to come back to me, they were destined to go to Pennsylvania and stay there because that was the only way I would have been able to learn to become an independent person. I’m not saying that I don’t need my parents, but a large part of who I am today is due to the mistakes that I’ve made and the lessons that I’ve learned from them.

I’d like to think that I’m unique, but then again, we’re all unique because no two people are the same. I haven’t quite figured out who I am or who I want to be but I do know that I’m well on my way. There isn’t one specific word that I would use to describe myself because I honestly don’t think I’d ever be able to make up my mind. I’m extremely indecisive and I have the attention span of a walnut so I really wouldn’t be able to sit down and think of one. I’ve been told that I’m blunt yet considerate, opinionated yet open-minded, tough yet sensitive, and closed yet outgoing. I know that right now it may just seem like I’m contradicting myself but I’d have to agree that all of those adjectives, together, are a good place to start describing who I am.

I have a lot of concerns in regards to my Freshman Year at Baruch. My first would be achieving and maintaining a 4.0 GPA. I know that that’s near impossible, but a girl can dream, can’t she? I feel like having a high GPA, especially this year, would really seal the deal on my future because I’m hoping to transfer out of Baruch. I need to do this for myself and for my parents because I want them to be proud of me, I want to give them something to brag about, and I feel that the best way for me to do that is to transfer to Binghamton and get into the business school there. My second major concern would be procrastination and time management. It has always been hard for me to push myself to start my work on time although this is also a major problem for most other students as well. I know that in order for me to achieve my 4.0 GPA, I would have to attack this problem head on. My third concern would be my ability to come out of my shell and making new friends. Ever since high school, I’ve always been told that I’m extremely outgoing and fun to be around. I’ve never found it hard to socialize and make new friends. But lately, I feel that it’s getting harder and harder for me to come out and just open up to new people. I’m not sure why but I hope that this problem will go away as soon as I fully adjust to the Baruch environment.

So far, Baruch is on a whole different playing field than Brooklyn Tech. I kept hearing that Baruch would just be a bigger version of high school since so many of my former classmates were coming here as well. Right off the bat, I noticed that it really didn’t make a difference because the school is large enough that I rarely run into them, although I’d love to. That’s one of the main differences between the two schools; in Tech it felt nice to see familiar faces everywhere I went but in Baruch I feel so alone at times because everybody seems to be doing their own thing and there’s just not enough time to slow down and say hello. Another big difference is that there are so many more resources here are at Baruch than there were in high school, I like the fact that it’s so easy to get access to a computer. On the bright side, a larger school also means that there are more opportunities. I’m able to take advantage of more clubs, more diversity, and more connections.

I think that my first year at Baruch will greatly change me, especially in terms of my work ethics. I’ve never really had to push myself at much but I know that I will have to this year if I plan on have a successful career. This year will shape me because I will have to shed my bad habits and develop better ones that will undoubtedly help me later on in life. I hope that this first year will set me on the right track to success.