Hmm, how to start this monologue? I guess saying who I am is a good start. Who am I? I’m seventeen, (eighteen in just a few weeks, I can’t wait), and I am a freshman at Baruch College. When, like all seniors in high school, I had to make the next choice in life, I thought long and hard. What would I want to study? Do with my life? Where would I like to learn? It seems obvious now, but it didn’t at first. I knew my environment could not be anything like the suburbia I had been accustomed to; thus, I chose to go where I was always happy, and that was New York City. I quickly chose Baruch, since I thought if offered me the most opportunities, since isn’t that what college is about? I am going to share something I don’t feel entirely comfortable with saying: my father never went to college. Now, I know that others in this room are probably in a similar situation and I emphasize, but I always was the odd one out of my friends for not having this; that is why I am determined to do as best as I can. My mother did go to a CUNY, so I guess it just runs in some part of my family.
However, no one ever told me how much work college would be. It’s not only homework, but also making relationships with others for hopefully the rest of my life. Was it difficult at first? Yes, very much so, but now I’m starting to feel more comfortable with the people around me. Though I seem to be the rare person not from a borough of the city, I feel comfortable about who I am. Do I miss my old friends from high school? Of course, but I enjoy meeting others and straying from my comfort zone; the best part is when you meet someone similar, but not entirely, like a friend from high school. Who knows? Maybe I’m just destined to be friendly with similar people in whatever road I am put onto in life. Though I’m not done with my first semester, college has helped me grow as a person; my interests have slightly changed, yet maybe things were always meant to be this way. I still love photography, my greatest hobby in High School, my passion since the ninth grade, and I’m glad that Baruch’s having a photography contest; I plan to enter. Do I know if I’ll win anything? Maybe, maybe not, what is certain is the competition will be larger than anything I have experienced; but it has reinvigorated my desire to do better than I have before. Then there’s the future. I haven’t even fully begun to think over what I will do with the rest of my life, but alas, I have more than enough time to think. I have ideas, some more developed than others, yet I’m certain I will make the right choices. The commute can be somewhat hectic, and some classes are better than others (to put it kindly), yet whenever I’m with my peers, I smile, knowing I chose a great community to be a part of.
