Monthly Archives: October 2010

My name is Victor Huang. If I could find the right words to describe myself, I would say that I am very outgoing, but only to an extent. Generally at first I can be really shy and timid, but once you get to know me, I’m no longer shy. A lot of people including my friends say I’m very helpful towards them. I cannot always agree with them, because I sometimes find the time and the need to irritate my friends. Furthermore a lot of people say I’m humorous. I find this true, but only to a small degree. Most of my jokes are nothing more than toilet humor. In general, I always hold an uncertain outlook on life; this can be the result of school, where I’m usually uncertain with the course material. The school year at Baruch is going decent so far, as I expected it to be. College is different from high school because the teachers don’t baby the students. Every student is responsible for doing his or her work. I got adjusted to this already in high school, some of my teachers were vindictive towards the students and I will never forget some of them who completely changed my views on school mostly in a negative way though. The workload is too bad considering the fact that I do absolutely nothing at home anyways. In my high school, there was a lot of work to do. I’m glad I actually did most of it because it made the transition from high school to college easier.  My main challenge in college at the moment is calculus class. Math terrified me in my junior year of high school so much that I decided not to take it in senior year. Merely passing the course will probably be satisfactory with me. Another challenge in college is paying for the textbooks, these textbooks are extremely pricey and mostly no more than a scam to trick students for their money and thus make the publishing companies more rich. But I digress, at some point the textbooks will be required for class, but most of the time I buy used ones solely for the fact that they are cheaper. I decided not to rent textbooks because they come at a high price and they cannot be sold to the incoming students of next semester or term. I’m planning to sell my textbooks once I don’t need them. At the same time, I feel cheated because once you pay for the textbooks; you let the seller acknowledge that you, yourself are willing to pay an outrageous amount for a textbook. I feel exploited because of that. Another thing regarding economic issues is student debt. Fortunately my parents could pay the tuition without having to take out a loan, so I’m in a good spot right now. Credit card companies think they can appeal to me with their advertisements, but I know the scheme behind credit cards. With this in mind, some people can categorize me as cheap. I’m not offended by this and I actually find this to be absolutely true most of the time. I was raised to be cheap, so I can’t really deny it and I don’t. Being frugal in this economy has many positive benefits. However there are many benefits to college as well. The most important is more freedom. In high school I was bombarded with work to do, but now its not the case with college… yet. The free time allows me to sleep more at home, and I cherish every moment of it. Hopefully in college, I will learn to be more disciplined as well as more independent and hard working. Currently I have a job on Fridays, when school is not in session. This job should make me more independent as well. Commuting to Baruch College is not an issue for me most of the time because I live pretty close to the school compared to most people, hence why I chose this school instead of Hunter College, which was my second choice. I really identify myself as a New Yorker, especially when commuting to school: I would always pretend to mind my own business when in fact I always stare at other people when they are not looking. In addition, I always find the urge to look at other people’s newspapers when I’m in the subway. It is really just a part of New York City culture and cannot be explained in more precise terms.

Hello everyone, my name is Kimberly, which is a pretty common name; especially since every school I have been to have always had a multitude of Kimberlys, which often caused some confusion in class. Every time the teacher would say Kimberly, I would feel my heart jump only to then realize that the teacher was referring to the other Kimberly and not to me.

I come from a family of five, which includes my mother, father, brother and sister. My sister recently graduated from Queens College and my brother is on his third year in Hunter College studying history. Both of my parents are immigrants from Ecuador and have lived in the United States for over 20 years. My father had to come here through illegal means when he was 19 because he believed that the United States offered more opportunities than in Ecuador. He pretended to be the son a wealthy man in Ecuador who was visiting New York for vacation.

Fortunately, I was born here in the United States and I’ve been working hard, at home and school, in order to compensate my parents for their continuous effort to raise my siblings and me. It has been difficult for all of us, especially in school, because none of my parents know English very well. The highest level that my father completed was the 5^th grade because he had to start working at 10 years old to support his family. My mother was only able to complete high school and then married my father. Therefore, my siblings and me had to learn things on our own. I, personally, learned to overcome this challenge by spending more time studying than was necessary. It is still a challenge for me but my family gives me the motivation to keep moving forward, a motto I try to live by. I believe that if one aims higher, they are able to achieve more even if they don’t reach their target.

Despite the many challenges my family faces, we always endure our hardships as a family. When deciding what college I should pick, a huge factor that determined my decision was my family. I was offered a full scholarship to go to Vassar College, but I decided to stay at home because they are the ones who give me the support I need to keep going. I contribute a lot to my family by cooking for them when they get home late and maintaining the apartment. To be honest, the part I enjoy most of my day is being able to go home to see how my white fluffy dog. Chico and how happy he gets to see that I’m home, and also spend time with my family.

Most of my life, I was looking forward to start college in order to get a good education and have a career. I want to financially assist my parents so that they can have an early retirement. Being in college has made me feel empowered because I feel that I’m closer to achieving my dreams, which at this moment I have no idea what that is.

However, I sometimes doubt my capabilities and intellect because I don’t always get the highest grade that’s possible but I learned throughout the years that life is not always about winning but about trying your best and having faith in oneself. One must be proud from where they come from, which is why I am extremely proud to call myself a Latina, working hard to achieve my dreams regardless of the obstacles society tries to impose. Even more specifically, I am proud to be a woman because I will not allow myself to become a housewife nor be objectified. My parents did not sacrifice themselves just to see me live the same fate of the women back in Ecuador. I will always maintain and support myself without the help of any man. Although, I am very quiet, I always try to maintain my dignity and prove to myself and others that I am more than what I appear to be. My parents took a risk to better secure my future and I plan to make them proud.

my favorite speech was rezwan’s. It seemed extremely honest and down to earth.

I also liked Lucas’s because of his energy and hansel’s because of his jokes.

I like Kimberly Delgado’s speech. she looked confident. what’s more, she had good eyes contact with us. and her speech was inspiring.

Lucas and Victor both did a great job at humor sence. we enjoyed their speeches. they had kind of magic to draw everyone’s attention.

hello again, I am zhuo,xiaoli. time flies,we have been studying in barch for more than one month. it is just like yesterday that when we got together and playing” I have never ever” game. but now, mid-term is coming, tests are coming. tension replaces  happniess. anyway,we will get used to it.

I came from China, and I am fuzhounese. my father went to new york when I was 3. I even could not remmember anything. following my father, I came here last december with my mother and older sister. family reunion which was my dream came true.

to be honest, the biggest challenge for me must be the language. for me, english is still a new language. i need to spend two times longer than you to understand the same article or writing the same topic essay. what’s worst. sometimes, i can hardly express myself comfortablely both in writing and speaking. i got a bad grade of my first english paper. but i do not feel depressed.it’s just a process.

i wanna share my “empowered”thing with you. I remember clearly that when I was a freshman in Chinese high school. because some terrible things happened to me,which made me can not focus on my study. finally, I got a 38 out of 150 in my first math mid-term exam. this grade is almost equal to 2.5 out of 10. but i still didn’t care about it . since then, when my classmates were talking about math, they would laugh at me, which made me shamed and angry. i start to reflect and made up my mind to study hard. finally, my math got a great progress in one term effort. almost every math exam, i could make it A. I felt invincible and powerful. it’s true that  where there is a will, there is a way. as long as I believe myself and never give up. things can go well.

To start off let me just tell you who I am. I am a former ballroom dancer who likes expressing herself through the movements of the body and music. It’s the only way to take myself away from the hardships of reality and fall into the fantasies of my dreams. I enjoyed dancing, going to competitions, doing my make-up, and designing my dresses. Unfortunately, that part of my life ended about two years ago when I experienced some difficulties in my last partnership. Now I am just an ordinary girl who goes to college and tries to get her ass through this world. When my dance career was over, I became very bored with my life and did not know what to do with myself and my time. Just imagine having a major part of your life taken from you. One day it’s there, and the next… it’s gone! I became almost depressed. There was no longer enough excitement in my life!

Well, now you might ask, why didn’t I go back and look for another partner? And the answer is not as simple. Max and I were truly amazing together. We connected very well with each other. We were fantastic dancers and held together for over 2 years, with wonderful results. We traveled a lot around the US and the rest of the world. We’ve been to States like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Utah, and also traveled to Germany for one of our international competitions. Competition after competition we showed constant improvements. Basically such success made a great impact on me, and once we split, I completely lost the spark! I miss it tremendously! The other reason why it’s difficult for me to go back is because it is an extremely expensive hobby. The lessons, the make-up, the shoes, the dresses, the participation in competitions, the travel expenses: all of these things cost BIG money! And by BIG I mean that we saved enough money for a downpayment for a house over the course of one year that I wasn’t dancing! So now you have a little clue of what professional ballroom dancing really is.

To cope with the loss of excitement, I started looking for a job. I became a cashier in a hardware store called Doody Home Center. This was, and still is, my first and only job. Despite the attitudes of certain customer, I love it there, because of great coworkers. We are like a family, no joke. Recently I was promoted to a little bit more serious position – a salesperson. I am a helping hand in putting out stock and keeping the displays neat and organized. However, as much as I love this job and don’t ever want to leave, I want to become someone important and successful in the field of business. When I graduate Baruch, it is my goal and dream to become a business woman; most likely an accountant. I want to work at an elite firm in NYC and be well known by many eminent organizations. In order for me to do that, I need to work intently, participate in many extracurricular activities, and graduate college with exceptional grades. But so far, the 1^st semester of my 1^st year here, it does not look too good!

Through the years, I have become a very joyful person. I am very outgoing and love company. In the summer, not so much now with college and loads of work, I used to go out to party every week, if not twice or three times a week! That’s how wild I am and the amount of energy stored in me is totally limitless. I am also usually satisfied with mostly anything that comes my way. If it’s something that disappoints me, I try to make it work, or in any case cope with it, and understand the fact that EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! There have been many incidents in my life that taught me to be optimistic. They helped me realize that there is no point in wasting the precious, limited time on arguments and regrets. My motto came to be “Joy of Loving, and Love of Living.” I love because I enjoy loving; not because I am forced to love. I love learning new things, falling into different situations, figuring out the solutions, and living my life to my fullest potential. I try not to waste any second of my life, because I want to become someone influential in other people’s lives!

I really enjoyed Lucas’s speech! He was very enthusiastic when he talked about himself. The jokes inserted throughout, made the monologue very interesting and kept the audience involved. From that we can see that Lucas has a great sense of humor =]

I also like Victor’s presentation. He was very chill speaking in front of the class. I admire that, because I know it is very difficult to speak in front of a group of people. Personally, I hate public speaking, and I respect the fact that Victor could do it with such ease. Just like Lucas, he is very funny, and knows how to entertain people.

i think Lucas’s monologue was very interesting and straight to the point.  He pointed out Mr. Hoffman’s eyebrows were very distracting as well. Me, personally I didn’t notice because of the goatee beard.

I think Kimberly Delgado’s monologue was very informative and easy to relate to.

Hansol’s monologue was good as well. Now I can now call him Han solo or han solo dolo.

I enjoyed Victor’s Monolouge. He did a fine job in representing us cheap people in the world. I admire his frugality and his tuthfulness. I feel his pain when it comes to buy over-priced and under-used textbooks.  Fight the power man! Don’t give the MTA your $2.25! However the fish…..

Rezwan’s Monolouge conviencieted me that he does have a disharded hate towards our our proffesor for Public Administration, the three musketeer.  I can see what he means, for his eyebrows, stained shirts, pharoh goate, and robotic voice can infact provoke people and cause riots.

And Miaolong Huang or Steven Seagal, I’m watching you! Remember Holy Cross will always be better than St. Francis Prep, regardless of our girl status!

Well it has been a couple of weeks, but if you don’t know my name it’s Lucas Lauber. I don’t blame you if you don’t remember because I only remembered half your names as well. An easy way to remember me is by referring to me as the “Disney” kid. I’m fine with that because almost my whole entire life I’ve been known for my deep fascination with Disney cartoons’ and the life of Walt Disney. That being said, if anyone needs help planning a vacation to Walt Disney World I’m your guy. I’ll help you plan for a nominal fee of either $500 or taking me with you. Either way you’re getting excellent help.

If you ask me what I like best about myself, I would tell you I like being weird. There is no shame in me for being different or unique. Now you may ask, “What’s so weird about you, besides the fact you went to Baruch?” Well, to understand my “weirdness” you must understand the way I grew up.

Well for starters I live in town of midgets. For some reason everyone in my neighborhood thinks that if they trim their trees down to about 5’ 10” they should be fine. Well, their wrong. I’m six foot, and every single day I walk the streets, I bang my head off of their branches. On rainy days, peoples umbrellas become “head-choppers,” because since almost everyone is shorter than me, their umbrellas reach my neck and people just don’t care about whose around them during rainy days.

Besides my awkward height, what is also awkward or even scary is the place I live. I live in a cemetery. To clarify this, my front door enters the street, while I open the back door and there are rows of tomb stones. You’re all saying to yourself “Isn’t that scary?” The truth is it’s not; it’s actually kind of fun, to walk in the night and search for ghost. Of course I search with my dog, I’m not that brave.  I had a couple of ghost encounters; however I could probably make that into a writing essay that lacks all the proofs of the argument that there is such things as ghost.

My unique experience in high school also plays a part on how I’m so different. My high school was an all-boys school, and why I went there has nothing to do with my sexual orientation. I actually went there because of their fine football program. There things that go on in a football locker I will not disclose in this monologue.  In order to survive an all-boy school you have to be incredibly conceited. If you didn’t think you were the best, or acted “macho,” you were considered an outcast, and your peers would literally pull you apart. It’s because of this I’m probably still overly confident all the time.

But one thing that is incredibly ironic in an all-boys school is that even though everyone is “macho” in school, once they see a girl it’s like they jump into their shell and never return. However, this never happened to me. For instance, one of my girlfriends (no, I don’t have more than one) used to go to an all-girls schools, and they would occasionally have dances with my school. She explained to me how all the boys were incredibly “pirate-like” and acted like they haven’t seen a girl in four years. This is probably actually true for most of these boys. However, as stated earlier, that wasn’t the case for me.

I wouldn’t go into Baruch that much; however I will say that Baruch has changed me a lot. For instance, I will never be able to eat Chinese food or have noodles the same ever again thanks to my anthropology class. So to finish off this monologue, I will say that I’m just a work in-progress. Eventually I’ll get more “weirder” in time. If any of you have any concerns about me or want to learn more about me come up and talk. You can tell me about yourself too, but to be honest I probably won’t listen.