My name’s Daniel Zabolotny, and boy am I glad that most teachers in Baruch can pronounce my name. In high school, none of them even tried. Anyways, I’m a freshman here at Baruch, which means I’m stuck in this freshman seminar course. I’m of Russian ancestry, but I prefer to think of myself as a straight-up American, as I was born in Coney Island, NY. Unlike most people, I take absolutely no pride in my background or culture, and I’m perfectly happy with abandoning it entirely. I love cheeseburgers and fast food, as well as playing guitar in some random low tuning. I also blog on my own, with a blog very similar (and perhaps better-designed) than this one. I’m rather stubborn in my beliefs as well, it’s either my way or no way. I’m very laid-back, almost to the point of where it makes me apathetic. In most situations where people would panic, I’m just like “chill, yo. relax.” I’m pretty sure that even if you held a gun to my head I’d be very levelheaded about it, as worrying never helps. People have often noted that I express exactly what I’m thinking, regardless of how crude or stupid it may be. I take pride in doing so, not everybody can express themselves so freely without self-censorship. If I dislike something I make it quite obvious, such as music which I’m really picky with. I’m also fairly lazy and a professional procrastinator. I sincerely believe that nothing in life is worth getting concerned or stressed about.
Concerns? Uhhh, waking up early is annoying. I’m always 5-10 minutes late for my first class of the day, no matter how early I try to wake up. If I leave my house earlier, then the train will get delayed or the bus will come late. It’s almost as if I have to be late. Other than staying awake in Anthropology and Math, I really have no other concerns. The work load so far is fairly light, if not lighter than that of high school.
Baruch is a bit different from my high school in several ways. The concept of free time isn’t new to me, though. My high school had these nifty things called OPTAs (Optional Time Acitivites), which were essentially free periods. My senior year I had about 5 hours of free time in school, so I just chilled in the halls while blocking traffic and annoying other students, with various activities such as playing guitar, playing volleyball with crumpled-up student election posters, and just generally being loud. However, I could not easily leave the building to get something to eat (sneaking out was easy, but getting back in was impossible unless you were “in” with the guards). The library here is significantly better and not full of loud ghetto people, which I am very thankful for. Getting to choose my own classes isn’t a new concept to me either, as in my high school we had to do that every semester too. For me, Baruch is like high school part II, except I have to pay for it and I can leave between classes and loiter in Guitar Center.
I think that over this first year of college I’ll have to relinquish a bit of my laziness, and I’ll have my procrastination skills honed to a craft. And maybe I’ll gain a couple of pounds from eating candy and fast-food nearly every day. I’m going to go get a cheeseburger now, so that’s the end of this blog post.
