Author Archives: kevin.guerra

My first few weeks in Baruch have taught me a couple of things. College is like high school on a larger scale, you always have seniors sticking to themselves, and sophomores and juniors already forming circles or cliques and then you have us, the freshmen who are trying to get acquainted with everything. I’ve met potential guy friends and potential girl friends but i wouldn’t call the people I associate myself with as my friends because friends aren’t just people I see in class everyday. A friend is someone who I can comfortably come up to and talk about anything, including classwork, last night’s football game, my dying grandmother, or even what drugs I do on the weekend.(This is a joke, I don’t promote the use of illegal substances, just used it to prove a point.)

My daily life here at Baruch is a drastic change from my high school years. I used to start at 730 in HS but now on my early days I start at 11 and on my late days at 230. I take the E train to the 6 train and I never see the same people board the train everyday. Even if I follow the same schedule I still have yet to see a familiar face.I know some kids like to sit in the same seat or around the same area everyday in class, I prefer to travel around the room. Change up my surroundings a bit. I surround yourself with different people all the time and for some reason that keeps me on edge. Because were in such a big pool of students, identity problems may arise. I came across that question one day and asked myself “Who am I?”

Am I the son of a divorced mother?
or
Am I a Queens boy aspiring to work/live in Manhattan as a basketball playing economist?
or
Am I a sibling to an older sister who recently became an alcoholic when she turned 21?

Truth is, I’m all of those things. But at the same time I’m none of those things.
I say that because at first glance all you see is a tall kid with a buzz cut and a cigarette in his mouth, you would never guess my life story but if you’d like to then meet me outside the Newman Vertical campus and we’ll talk it over a cigarette break.

My first few weeks in Baruch have taught me a couple of things. College is like high school on a larger scale, you always have seniors sticking to themselves, and sophomores and juniors already forming circles or cliques and then you have us, the freshmen who are trying to get acquainted with everything. I’ve met potential guy friends and potential girl friends but i wouldn’t call the people I associate myself with as my friends because friends aren’t just people I see in class everyday. A friend is someone who I can comfortably come up to and talk about anything, including classwork, last night’s football game, my dying grandmother, or even what drugs I do on the weekend.(This is a joke, I don’t promote the use of illegal substances, just used it to prove a point.)

My daily life here at Baruch is a drastic change from my high school years. I used to start at 730 in HS but now on my early days I start at 11 and on my late days at 230. I take the E train to the 6 train and I never see the same people board the train everyday. Even if I follow the same schedule I still have yet to see a familiar face.I know some kids like to sit in the same seat or around the same area everyday in class, I prefer to travel around the room. Change up my surroundings a bit. I surround yourself with different people all the time and for some reason that keeps me on edge. Because were in such a big pool of students, identity problems may arise. I came across that question one day and asked myself “Who am I?”

Am I the son of a divorced mother?
or
Am I a Queens boy aspiring to work/live in Manhattan as a basketball playing economist?
or
Am I a sibling to an older sister who recently became an alcoholic when she turned 21?

Truth is, I’m all of those things. But at the same time I’m none of those things.
I say that because at first glance all you see is a tall kid with a buzz cut and a cigarette in his mouth, you would never guess my life story but if you’d like to then meet me outside the Newman Vertical campus and we’ll talk it over a cigarette break.

3 Academic Challenges
-Paying attention
-Readings
-Memorizing dates, styles, names

Roots
-Prof is too boring, sleepy
-Texts are too long, sometimes not required
-Large quantity of memorizing

Solutions
-Coffee, energy drinks, get more sleep
-Read on the train, couple pages a day
-Make a list of terms to study, go to museum for first hand experience