LC 16

Post a monologue you’ve developed in your seminar, along with a self portrait (which can be a photograph, an image, a cartoon or some other depiction of how you see yourself).

I’m the typical teenager who likes to do the typical things. I like to eat, sleep and go out. I graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City. With a 40% drop out rate, it wasn’t the best, but I have to say it wasn’t the worse either. I was able to meet friends and I was able to explore. I found out what I liked and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I found out that I loved poetry. None of that Shakespeare sonnet stuff or Ayaz’s poems. I love real legit modern poetry. I also started planning my career path at the end of my High School years. I want to be an event planner. I want to intern at different companies and land a real part time job before I turn 20 and a full time job when I hit 23. It doesn’t seem quite realistic, but when I look back at what my siblings did, I start to believe in myself.

Two of my sisters also graduated from Baruch. They both found internships and worked their way up to a part time position then full time before they even turned 22. At such a young age, they found out what they wanted to do and never stopped pushing forward to achieve it. They are who I want to become when I grow up. Just like how everyone else looks up to someone, my two sisters are my role models.

To hit that level of success like my sisters did, I know I’ll have to open up more and start networking. I knew I had to get involved with things so I basically signed up for every club there was at Baruch. Even though I haven’t had the time to actually participate in every club, I can now proudly say that I am part of the USG Campus Affairs Committee and one of a million photographers of the Ticker.

I am the typical undergrad student. I am no different from any other student here at Baruch. I am lazy, I procrastinate but at the end of the day I work hard to play hard. And like everyone else, I learned to love Baruch College.

This enrichment workshop was interesting at times. I thought it was longer than it needed to be. It was unnecessary to have the panelist. I didn’t see their function at all in the whole discussion. Stan Altman, the moderator, and Charles N. Li had a very interesting discussion about reality and identity. Mr. Altman talked about how the difference between a dog’s reality and a human’s reality can result in the dog saving the human’s life. Mr. Li talked mainly about how a person can be good or evil. Identity is an indefinite thing and it changes along with culture and time. He struggled to find his own existence when he was a young child living in China. The most interesting point that was brought up was the difference in philosophy between East Asia and the West which is that people in the West are born without the question of identity. This leads to them pursing their desires.  Overall, I gained some knowledge through the moderator and Mr. Li.

In my life, I want to achieve many goals. As many of you know, I volunteered at the salvation army. It had the biggest impact on my life. I worked with second graders all day long from 8:30  in the morning to around 5:30 in the evening. I devoted so much time in this activity because I want the kids to learn something in some aspect. I dealt with an ADD kid over this summer, along with six other kids. The ADD kid troubled me because he needed a lot of attention that I couldn’t give him. He constantly would not listen to the lesson and ends up playing around. He would play around with his water bottle and bang it against the table. Sometimes when he is copying notes, he would just suddenly stop and stick his eraser in his mouth. It was hard to deal with him. I wanted to so a one on one teaching session  with him but it was not possible because he wasn’t the only student. I tried my best to teach him the lesson. Although I  hated teaching him because of his disorder, I also felt bad for him. I wanted him to do well and learn something. I ended copying the lesson for him so that he can concentrate on the actual classwork. That didn’t work out so well. He still needed someone to watch him and make hum work. If nobody was next to him, he would just do nothing, in e end, I had a volunteer try his best to go over the lesson with gym as I taught the class. I taught both math and English so that was two hours back to back teaching. As the program came to an end, I noticed that he had learned something in my class and I felt relieved.

Now that I am in college, there are certainly many different changes and important things to think about for my own future and for my own good. The college life is much different from high school. We all have to pace ourselves without anyone else helping us during the process. We must meet the deadlines and no one is there to remind us. Also, there is much more readings to do for homework where we will not be able to cover most of it in class. As for my future, I now have to think about what I really want to pursue in life in order to get the degree for it. I am unsure of what career I really want to do. At first I wanted to become an accountant because it’s a job that I can easily pursue in four years and I don’t mind doing math. However, I have been told many times it is a boring job and my uncle told me that this job is too simple that almost anyone can go learn the skills necessary to do it and become an accountant. So now I am unsure of what I really want to do after college.

So this is a picture that I found and I believe resembles me. hahas

Early morning I wake up warmly wrapped on my bed;
Leaving my dreams of bright days into a dark and cold room.
The sky is so gloomy with a new day ahead–
It’s so unwelcoming I don’t want to move.
To get up and enter the busy city streets
Filled with millions of faces I may never meet.
A mesh of faces of different colors, different size,
People who blend in, people who stand out.
But in the end they all have the same thing in mind.
Without a doubt it’s a single track mind:
“I need to get here. I need to get there”
And you better watch out if you dare to interfere.
Their eyes show concern for their troubles for their problems.
So wrapped up in their world they forget about the world.
So caught up in me, myself and I,
There’s no room to stop or to say hi.

But it’s okay, it’s alright
I’ll just do my thing and live my life.
This peace I got is contagious;
People get dumbfounded by patience,
Kindness makes them stop and think,
And their hearts change when encountered with innocence.
So, I’ll live as me and I’ll do my thing
I won’t let the crowd and mesh get to me
Avoiding the mindset of just me in my life
So my conscience is free of the thought:
“You’re just like the others.”

The best word to describe me would probably be versatile.  I’m simple yet complex, gifted yet flawed.  I’m an understanding person, sweet natured, kind-hearted, and sensitive; however with the good comes the bad.  I’m stubborn, like to have the last word in an argument, and a bad habit of mine is that I’m the worst, however, one of the most skilled procrastinators you’ll ever meet.

My fears and quirks vary from the most silly to the serious.  I’m a very jumpy person, easily scared, always feel like I’m anxious, and am very fidgety.  I could see someone coming and for some reason still get scared if they try to scare me from behind.  I don’t get it.  If there is a bug anywhere in the room you’ll know it because you’ll probably here me freak out if it’s near me, or at least point it out to everyone in the room.  I try to block out the idea of failure in my mind.  It’s not a comforting feeling that I may not accomplish what I want.  Another fear is not living my life to the fullest and achieving what I want.

I’d like to learn how to manage my time better and definitely manage my money better.  These two things are essential to getting a great internship which will help me get my first real job, make good money for that future apartment in the city that I know I’m going to be living in.

I want to make the best out of my Baruch experience and take advantage of all the resources that this school supplies its students with.  These goals are pretty common: getting good money, living somewhere you’ve always wanted to, whether it be a big house or nice apartment in the city like me.  However another goal of mine is to meet me people that will make me grow as an individual, and make me a better person.  After all, life is all about the people you meet that make it worth living.

I care a lot about my future. Since the amount of education I get determines my job and how I will my life, it is essential that I do my best and succeed in college. I am afraid that if I don’t succeed in college I won’t be able to find a good job and live a comfortable and luxury life. Even though I hate going to school and doing homework, I do it anyway just for the sake of getting a good job where I only need to work for 8 hours a day and still get a decent paying. And of course I want to become an educated person. Now I really need to work extra hard and live up to my potential.

If there is one thing in this world I hate the most, I would say giving speeches. I am just not a public speaker. I would rather die than to give a speech in front of everybody.  I hate it, but because I need it in order to graduate from Baruch and besides I need to overcome this “speech phobia”, I am working on my speech skills. I hope by the end of this semester or by the end of this school year I would be able to do it confidently and professionally.

I believe I am a person with a lot of different traits. I’m a worrier, funny, kind and cool to be around. But I’m  not perfect, like everyone I have some faults. I get lazy sometimes, and I have a bad temper especially with my family. My best quality as a person is being there for people. I don’t like seeing people being upset, so I’m always willing to talk and try to cheer people up. Also, I love dogs and I’m currently employed at The Pet Company.

College is very stressful and I have many concerns being a freshman about Baruch. My number one concern is failing or not achieving good grades. My biggest fear in life is failure which is why I’m nervous about doing well. Another concern of mind is just being able to manage my time with school and studying. I have a lot of commitments other than school such as work, friends, and my girlfriend. I fear that I may get to stress and start falling behind. My last concern about Baruch College is graduating in four years. I know many students do not graduate in four years but this is my goal. I don’t if i will be able to handle the course loads and this may cause me to take maybe five years to graduate.

Baruch experiences will be totally different then the experiences in high school. Baruch has some many different cultures and it’s going to be interesting meet people from so many different ethnic backgrounds. Also, the experience I’ll have from classes will prepare me for the work force. Unlike in high school, were your more laid back because you still have time before your out in the world.

Just my first month in at Baruch and I can see myself starting to change. I more hardworking, I’m always reading for my classes and trying to do my work earlier. Also, I feel more responsible because in college it’s all on you and you don’t have your parents their to do everything for you anymore. These are just a few changes that I have already seen in myself and hopefully I will have more changes that are good.

As for my personality, I think I am outgoing, athletic, and friendly. I try to help others whenever they need help. One of my top 3 concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College is obtaining good grades and a good GPA so that I will be off to a good start and I won’t end up regretting anything. Another concern is being able to manage my time and balancing it between work and school. Sometimes, I might not be able to get enough sleep because having to work and then going to school the next day is tough. My last concern about my freshman year is being able to learn as much as I can about the school so I won’t feel so left back in the following years to come. I want to know what to expect and stay on track to obtain the degree of my choice.

So far, I think that having breaks and so much freedom in Baruch College is the main difference from high school. I believe if there were more social events to attend to it would make my experience much difference and not having the learning community classes as well. The learning community classes is a great way to know the people within your class but sometimes it’s nice to know other people as well. I think my first year at College will have a great impact on me. It will certainly be a great chance for me to explore the college more with all the free time and to meet new people as well. I also think it will change some of my insights and views on life because I’m meeting a lot of people from different areas of NYC rather than mostly Brooklyn heads.