Category Archives: FRB BLOGS

So one day my father calls me into the room. He only does this when i am in trouble so i figured it was something bad. He sits me down and begins to tell me in spanish to draw a circle. I was confused by what he told me to do. So i just listened to him and did not ask questions because i believed he was upset. I drew a circle. He tells me to tell him what i see. At this point i think my dad is going crazy. I told him it is a circle. He told me it is much more than that. He tells me that, the circle represents my family history. I am completely lost but i go along with what he is saying. He tells me his father used to be a worker on a field during world war II and that he moved around a lot until he found a superintendent job. My father also worked with crops until he came to new york and got his job as a superintendent. He tells me nobody in my family has a college degree. It is the same circle. He tells me to draw up a new circle. I drew it up. He told me this is me. I am going to be a new breed of Espara’s. i am going to be educated and instead of working with my hands i will be working with my mind. I am going to start a new circle to that my children can be like me, educated with a college degree that i will hopefully be receiving in 3 years. He tells me that the circles must always be near each other too because although it is new, it must never forget about its past.

Dear Professor “X”,

I apologize for being absent on the day of the midterm exam. I had a fever that left me incapacitated. I sincerely hope that you will allow me to take the midterm finals due to the illness I had came down with.

From,

Brandon Man

The Monologue

Camping is a great time to hang out with your family or friends. Be it rain, shine, or snow, the outdoors are always a great place to relax at. You can set up your tent with great pride and joy or eat food and drink. Or just drink. No, really I think that’s the best and most memorable part. Okay, fine. The best part is actually when we went canoeing/rafting. Paddling through the Delaware River filled with white water (basically very rough water) is tiresome yet worth it. Sometimes we would get into two groups and start racing each other or we would connect the rafts together.

Also cooking food over a fire that you made is fulfilling. It’s challenging yet rewarding. You might end up burning the food, but what you can get out of it is something very tasty. This is even more so when you’re cold and tired. Also, camping is not limited to just humans. The wildlife such as deer and bears litter the camping sites. In fact, one of my friends fought off a bear with his bare hands. Or so he told us.

What I’ve learned from camping, however, is that we take the environment for granted. If all our forests and lakes are destroyed for human development, it takes away so much of the beauty from nature. Fresh air, lots of green, and beautiful vistas are many of the things that you can enjoy while camping.

Dear Professor Burleigh,

Although I understand that we have a paper due tomorrow, I will not be able to attend class. I am feeling very ill and cannot make it. I can be there on Wednesday, and I will bring you a doctors note if you would like. Please let me know if you want me to bring my paper in on Wednesday. If not, I can email it to you right away so you have it. I do apologize about the inconvenience.

Thank you,

Michelle Persico

Monologue

I never really had a hobby when I was younger. Im not athletic, so sports were out of the question. Something that really interested me was community service. It was a great feeling to know that I could help someone by doing something so small. Nobody ever forced me into doing it, I went on my own. In 6th grade I started by joining the March of Dimes committee in my school. Ever since then I have attended every walk in Staten Island. In 6th grade I also started going to a food pantry with a friend. We would stock up all the food that people donated. During junior high I also was a part of the Alzeihemers Foundation. They would hold Chinese Auctions and I would help run them. When I entered High School I joined two youth groups. One of them focused on figuring out volunteer projects that we could do. Something we chose a lot was to go to a soup kitchen. We bought and made the food ourselves. Seeing the grateful looks of the people was a huge reward in itself. My favorite volunteer group was called T.H.E Group. It stood for Teen HIV Educators. We would go to group homes and teach younger kids things other than celibacy. The man that ran this group was HIV positive, and he would tell his story. He has done amazing things for the cause and fought his own battles. He has been a great influence in my life, causing me to want to do more to help others.

This is T.H.E Group at Dine Out Against Hunger

Dear Professor ,

I’m having a difficulty understanding the things you’re talking about in class. I believe if you make slideshows rather than just talking about something for an hour it would be more helpful.

Sincerely,

Cihan Yildiz

(ps. I just wrote that bcs I didn’t know what to write about)

My Monologue :

Soccer is really important in my life. I moved to United States 3 years ago, and didn’t speak a word of English. After a year of not speaking English, and barely having couple of friends I joined the soccer team. To be a part of the team I had to communicate with them and be a part of them, and that helped me learn English so much faster. I was a big part of the team, I had a lot of friends and I made my family proud because I was an all-star my junior year. Soccer helped me so much in high school and now it’s just a big hobby that i love to do.

Hey professor I’m having trouble with a specific homework problem. I know you went over the problem in class but my notes aren’t very clear. Can you tell me how to derive the derivative of #4b in the main textbook.

-Wasim Salim

So on Thursday I spoke about how my dad has been there for me every step of the way. Now im just going to refine what i said because at the time i was not very prepared to speak in front of the class.

So basically my dad has been there through the thick and thin. Upon his request and my mothers refusal he let my 2 brothers and me enroll in a Martial Arts Academy. Both of my brothers started when they were three and it was my turn. I was 3 years old when i was a white belt. My dad always told me i would whine about not wanting to go to the dojo and how i would lock myself in the bathroom and play with my toys (i know…im so cool). But in the end, he always got me to go. I thank him for this. If I just gave up on it I wouldn’t be the outgoing and fun guy I am today. Not only did it make me outgoing but it also made me very confident in myself. My dad always said “You got your black belt at 13, most of these people on the streets cant even throw a real punch, don’t take sh*t from anybody” This was all said in out native language. Because of the positive encouragement from my Dad i went on to get a 2nd degree black belt and then a 3rd. After all this martial arts business my dad accomplished his goal of having his 3 sons become blackbelts but his support didnt stop there. He showed up to my first track meet in 9th grade and even though i didnt do that well he said “You’ll do better next time, its only your first race. Keep on working hard and you’ll make it to states next year” The crazy thing is, he told this to me during winter track…and i made it to the Spring outdoor season State championships in Buffalo. The one thing that my dad did that makes me so happy and know he’s always going to be there for me was when i was at the state meet and he drove up to buffalo to see me race. He told me he had business to take care of and bid me goodluck and what not. But he showed up at the meet about 2 hours before my race.

I could say more but i have a lot of other homework to get done. But in all, I guess i just wanted to share with everyone how much I love my Father and no matter what I can always count him to be there for me.

The first time I smoked pot was when I was 16. At first I had been very adamant about not smoking weed. In fact, I thought people who smoked were stupid. But, because of my schools small size everyone became very close to one another. And so the peer pressure got to me and I gave in to smoking pot. The first time I did it I loved it and from then on I kept on doing it. At first is was once a week, but then it started to become twice a week and eventually I was at the point where I was smoking 3-4 times a week. The effects were terrible. My grades were getting mediocre and I was barely keeping up with assignments. Life at home was becoming stagnant. I communicated with no one in my family. It came to a point where I wasn’t even saying good morning or see you later when I was entering and leaving the house. I had lost interest in my family and they had lost interest in me.

It wasn’t until 12th grade when I began to change. It took a lot for me to change though. The thing that changed me was getting in trouble on my senior trip. During senior trip a few friends and I decided to smoke pot and my chaperones noticed that we were high. My parents had to come in and I was basically kicked out out of senior trip. Thats when I started to change. Immediately after  the incident I stopped smoking for about a month and I began hanging out with new people and doing different things. I immersed myself in other activities like blog writing, exercising, reading books, and watching movies.

Don’t get me wrong though, I still love pot. And I didn’t quit forever. I just cooled down. I got over the “pothead” life style and just began casually smoking. The key to enjoying things like pot, alcohol and what ever else people like to use, is to exhibit self control. If you can’t control yourself then you  will fall victim to addiction. Always remember there are people who have never ‘used’ at all. Just think about what some of these people might do for fun and try to inject the same activities into your life. Self control will build it self as you learn about other things to do in your leisure time.

Dear Professor Teacher,

I am currently having problems understanding the material we have been doing on the east coast tribes of Northern America. If I can possibly schedule a meeting with you to help me grasp the information better it would be gladly appreciated.

Thanks

My Monologue :

My whole life revolves around sports. It my have all started from my father. My dad was a great basketball and baseball player who was family friends with many iconic sports figures. When I was younger I was a really good pitcher and enjoyed playing almost everyday. At around 14 or 15 years old I found out that I had a problem with my arm. Soon after that my playing days came to an end but I still have a strong liking for many teams such as the Mets, Nets, Giants, and Devils. I was a season ticket holder last year for the Devils and I try to attend at least 20 Mets games a year. I love my teams to death. I schedule my days around their games, have jerseys and many other items. Sports are what I live for!

Dear Mrs. Mearle,

Hey Mrs. Mearle, I was just emailing you to tell you that I had some really bad sushi last night and now i have the runs. I know I’m being very straight forward and I could have just said “hey, I’m sick.” But no, you are my teacher and you deserve to know exactly what is wrong with me. I am deeply sorry for not being able to show to class today and I am sorry for not being able to email you before class due to the fact that I was in the bathroom all morning. I can come in on Wednesday with a doctors note and I will be up to date on all the work I missed. Okay, now I have “to go”, I can feel it. Thank you for your time and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Sincerely,

Fahad Ghuman

Dear Professor Dalavagas,

I’m sending this e-mail to inform you that I will not be able to be present during the midterm examination in class tomorrow. Unfortunately I am currently in the hospital and will have to remain here over the next couple of days. I would just like to see if I had your permission to make up the examination at a later date. I have with me a signed doctors note explaining the details of why I am here and my absence, so please let me know in what method you would prefer that I send it to you. I hope you can understand that I would prefer to attend class on that day but am just not going to be able to make it. I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me make it at whatever time may be convenient for you.

Thank you,

Nicole Gluck

I’m not really sure how to write a monologue about myself. I could just spit out verbs or nouns or adjectives but that wouldn’t really give you a clear cut view on who I actually am as a person. What’s going on inside my brain could probably be compared to any sort of apocalyptic scenario, because there are literally way too many things going on in there. Sometimes it’s hard for me to focus on one thing because I’m considering different actions and consequences and outcomes and verses and ideas and I just can’t put my brain on hold. That’s why sleeping is one of my favorite things to do. I wish there was some way to send your brain on vacation, to just pack it up a little suitcase and give it a little fanny pack and send it on it’s way to the Bahamas or Puerto Rico so you could just chill out without having to worry or mope or grieve or stress. I’m not sure if I’m the only person who has this problem, but it’s literally a daily kind of thing where I’m telling my brain to shut up, stop digging deeper into that thought and just leave it be but it keeps clawing at the littlest pinprick ideas in my head and it enlarges them and shreds them to pieces and gets so deeply inside them that after a while I’ve just lost control and I have to think these things that I don’t want to and that I know aren’t good for me. Hopefully in the future someone invents an off button for your brain with some sort of allotted time for relaxation and you can just sit in a chair mindlessly for three days straight.

I also secretly wish I was a bear, this is my incorporated media picture