Like many of my peers, I’ve looked forward to college for a good portion of my life. The allure of living on my own, taking care of myself, and doing what I wanted without having to worry about anyone else; freedom. I wanted to live in a dorm with my fellow students, and relax on the quad after class. However, unlike most of my peers, I was set on attending school in the city, and while there are many colleges in the city, setting my heart on a specific location obviously limited my choices. After eliminating all my other choices, with the help of a couple rejection letters, I decided to attend CUNY Baruch. It was everything I needed: a quality education at a reasonable price. I was a bit uneasy about going to a school I knew nothing about, but after visiting and learning more about it, I was excited to come here to Baruch.
Now here I am, two months into my first semester, completely satisfied with my education. But I can’t help but feel that something is missing. Now I realize that the traditional college experience has escaped me. I don’t live on campus; in fact I don’t live anywhere close to campus, with more than an hour of commuting every day. There’s no quad to relax on, and no dorm to live in. I lost what made me really look forward to college. Now when I see my friends talking about doing “college things” I get jealous, because I want to have their way of life.
I don’t regret coming to Baruch, and I remain optimistic about the future. Next year I know I will have better luck with living in the city, getting me closer to campus, which should solve a lot of my issues. But for now, I’m stuck in a life where nothing is that bad, but nothing’s that great either, like my own little purgatory. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it out of this and move on to my own little paradise.
