Author Archives: Janessa Hernandez

My days at Baruch have been pretty pleasant. I’ve met a lot of new people that I get to hang out with in between classes. The 2 classes I have been taking haven’t been the best. I can go on for days complaining about my professors but at the end of the day my grade depends on me, not them. I wished I was not put part time for this semester because I already feel behind and the semester isn’t even finished yet. I wonder how the next semester will be and what it will bring.

So here’s a 10 year old girl who occasionally would hear about the unexpected things that could happen to someone. She knew someone who had heart problems and another who couldn’t bare a child. She wished nothing as life-changing would happen to her since she lived a life without breaking bones or unfortunate events. But how many wishes do you know actually come true?

During a family get together her aunt was giving her fickle on her back. Fickle was a relaxation technique the family created which is when you lightly glide the tip of your fingers against the person’s skin. Doing this the aunt realized that her spine wasn’t straight.

Her parents took precaution and got it checked out. The doctor gave them the news that she had scoliosis. It is when you have a curvature in your spine. There are different curves; there is the “S” curve where there are 2 curves and there is the “C” curve where there is only 1 curve. You know how in math there are degree angles? That is how the curves are measured. You can go from a miniature 10 degree angle to a more severe 60 degree angle which is what she was close to having is nothing was done to stop it.

The decision was made for the girl to get a back brace to slightly make the curve smaller. She had to wear it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which took a lot to get used to. The brace made her uncomfortable but she did it for 2 years. The only thing good about it was that she ended up getting a 4-pack from it.

When she got a bit older the doctor felt she was ready for the surgery that would put 2 metal rods against her spine to make it straight.

After spending about 7 hours in the surgery room and a week in the hospital for therapy, it was still not over. She needed a month of recovery in her house to get back to herself again. She could barely walk, taking a lot longer than usual to walk down the hallway.

After a few months, she was back to herself again; She went back to school and hung out with her friends again. Life after surgery was similar to life before the surgery. But don’t ask her to do crunches or reach over to touch her toes because she doesn’t have the mobility in her lower back to do it. How do I know all of this? Because that girl is me.

To me, community service is taking time out to help others in need without getting paid for it. The idea is to get something out of it other than a financial gain. After doing some community service most people feel like it changed their outlook on life and realize things they didn’t see before. The type of community service I did a few years ago was help out at a church. I used to be an altar server every Sunday at church. It was a good experience because it made me go to church which kept me good spirited but I don’t feel like i gained much from it. When I have the chance to do community service again I want to work in a soup kitchen or somewhere like that. I feel like working with the less fortunate will put things into perspective for me. Coming out of working in a place like a soup kitchen will make me really appreciate what I have and things I take for granted. I look forward to doing something like that since I haven’t done it yet and I’ve heard it is a small life-changer. So yeah, i wonder where our freshman seminar class is going to do community service.

Let’s see, who is Janessa Hernandez? I think I am a really cool, down to earth person. I am not going to lie, I am shy at first but once I get the feel of the kind of person you are, then i’ll show you the person I am and I won’t be shy anymore. I think I’m a good listener and willing to give a helping hand. Some of my concerns about my freshman year at Baruch would be if I can handle the workload, if I’m going to like the school, and if the transition from high school to college going to be an easy one. Handling the workload is a concern because it is completely different from what I am used to. The courses I take are more challenging and I’m not used to getting as much work. I wonder if the methods i used in high school are going to work now. I know one that won’t, procrastination. I am also concerned if I’m going to like Baruch College because I had the mindset all throughout high school that I was going to dorm. Going to a commuter school has dampened my outlook on my freshman year in college but I’m trying to get the most out of it. Im worried that if I don’t like the school, its going to effect my grades. But once I get passed the non-dorming concept, I will like the school a lot more. My last concern would be if the transition from high school to college is going to be an easy one. Im a person that stresses a lot over situations so if it is a rough transition for me, my reaction will definitely show. I hope it will be an easy transition that way my freshman year won’t be as hard. My Baruch College experience will be different from my high school experience in that I am going to have less time for myself. I was able to cruise through high school by getting a lot of work I didn’t have to spend so much time on. But now, the homework that I get require a lot of time and effort to be put into; if not, I will get a poor grade. That being said, I won’t have as much leisure time as a I did in high school. I think my first year at college will change me because I will be a lot more independent. High school students are very sheltered compared to college students that have to get stuff done on their own. With this new form of independence, I will easily transform into the adult that I will soon become.