Category Archives: Mandatory Post 2

Hi my name is Jonathan Kranzler. Many people call me Yoni since that is my Hebrew name. I am an addict. I am addicted to things that generate an adrenaline rush. I love that feeling you get from extreme sports or taking big risks with high rewards. I enjoy the rush from wrestling, snow boarding, working out or just about any competitive sport. I also enjoy the trill of gambling on poker, horse racing, or any sports. I am a very relaxed guy that doesn’t get rattled too often. To get me upset would take a lot of aggravation. However, the thing I am most nervous about is the uncertainty about the future. What will be with my life? Will I be comfortable economically? Will I be able to provide for a healthy family? If there was one philosophy I try to live by in dealing with others it would be to not be judgmental. It seems wrong to judge someone for something they did since no one is perfect and no one has gone through what that individual has experienced. This summer I moved to the city from the suburbs. Its been an amazing transition and I love being in the city. It should be interesting to see how things change from a homogeneous jewish suburb to the most amazing city in the world. Only time will tell. Im hoping to have some unforgettable years here at Baruch.

(never posted, sorry)

The definition of a monologue is a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker. Yet if I was to
stand in front of the class and talk about myself, then I would be speechless. When you speak about yourself, you’re expected to say something interesting and include unique facts about yourself, but if you know yourself really well, then are those facts actually unique to you? This is the dilemma I was confronted with when thinking about my monologue.

Back in October of 1992, I was born in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Part of my early childhood was spent in Poland,
as I lived there for a few years. Apart from that, I’ve lived in Amherst, Massachusetts my whole life. I have a younger brother, who’s almost identical to me, a side from the fact that I’m four years older. My passion my entire life has been basketball and it remains the most important thing in my life to this day.

Moving to New York was a huge change for me. I went from being a dependent, small-town kid, to an independent college student that must make decisions concerning my future, by myself. Life hasn’t been easy, but it’s definitely more exciting.

People say that now is the time of our lives. We’re supposed to enjoy every minute, because we’ll never get this time back. This is the time we’ll be figuring out who we are, what we want in life, and all that we aspire to be. Some people seem to have it all figured out: their major, where they want to attend graduate school, the whole shabang. I, on the other hand, don’t. I say I want to go into business, but who’s to say that I won’t change my mind in the next four years?

We all have plenty of time to figure out who we want to be, what we want to do and the places we want to see. There isn’t much need for all of this pressure to decide it all now. I have no doubt we’ll all figure it out soon enough. Let’s focus on making the best out of this time in our lives, and we’ll figure it all out along the way.

When asked who I am, I rarely have an answer. I have been trying to come up with the answer myself for quite some time now. Sure I can give the generic answer, “I’m the son of two loving parents, blah blah blah.” But that doesn’t set me apart from other people. There’s no depth in that answer.

Who knows who I’ll be? Will I find a cure to a currently incurable disease? Will I invent a device so revolutionary, it’ll make Steve Jobs look like a four year old? I was always told I can be anything, be anyone. Only now, in college, am I realizing what I can do with that statement. I  decide who I will be. I decide where I will go. It’s all up to me.

Basketball. Yeah, I know some people might be sucking their teeth thinking, “damn, another basketball fiend.” Or saying to themselves, “he probably not even good, so why he talking about basketball.” But, i wanted to talk about basketball because I love to play it. I first started playing when I was in the 4th or 5th grade during recess. Ever since then, I would play whenever I got the chance. I’d play at school, on my block with those portable hoops or at recreation centers. I always played for fun until I tried out for my high school team my freshmen year. I didn’t make the team but, I still kept playing everyday after school and on weekends. When tryouts came around next year, I was a lot better and the coach noticed so I made the team. Didn’t think the game would change, but it got a lot harder when I joined the team. It was challenging and fun at the same time because of the competition. Playing against these other players made me want to practice harder and longer because of how much better they were. But I didn’t because I’d gotten a job that cut the time I’d have to play ball. I never joined back the team because I’d rather work and get paid then play. Ever since then I’ve barely played, up until now since I no longer work.

My life is boring. There’s really not much going on other than your usual day to day occurrences that are integral to one’s life. I’ll be the first one to tell you if my life was interesting. But it’s not. The most spontaneous part of my day is coming home to a different dinner every night.

I’m a son, a brother, a friend. I listen when someone needs me, give my opinion where it’s sought out, and just live my normal teen life. I do wonder sometimes whether things will change. Whether something will happen or someone will come into my life to make it interesting.

School has made my life a little more interesting. The freedom I’m given in school makes me feel very responsible. I’ve never handled this much responsibility before. It’s kind of exciting. I just don’t want to disappoint someone if I can’t handle it. I’m just hoping that i’ll Be able to do my best.

Once again in the same position as last blog post and with all my work really, leaving it all to last minute. It seems to be workin out but hopefully I cud break this habit. When I think of monologue I think of someone by them self talking to a group of people. That shouldn’t b an issue as talking isn’t a problem for me. So until next weeks monologue, everyone enjoy themselves.

The Thinker.  I’ve been thinking all my life. I’ve never stopped; I’ve thought about too much and at a time, which I felt was far too early. You can call it maturity but at times I called it torture and besides I think maturity is measured by mature actions rather than words or age (you can be seventy years old and still get in fights with your hundred-something year old parents about the mess in your room). Who but God can know the depths of the human mind? Millions of ideas, words, moments I remember just appear in my head at moments that usually aren’t best. Still, I realize that I’m blessed because I have this mind. No matter how much I feel like I don’t want to be who I am, I always find moments that I love in this lifetime process of growing up.

Rain. Rain. Rain.  It’s cold when it rains and though I love the rain, a sort of heavy feeling comes over you when it rains. I never want to go anywhere. I just want to grab a blanket and huddle in it until the sun comes out again. It rained for the first few days of college. I felt that same heaviness, wanted that blanket, and just didn’t want to move. I guess it wasn’t just the rain. I realized I was growing up and I didn’t want to. But life is constantly moving, so like the rain, I had to hit the pavement. It was hard. I wasn’t to happy with where I was. I was angry as systemic issues with CUNY. A little upset that I’d have to travel to a crowded city. I had to get back to work again after a long summer of doing nothing but relaxing. I had no idea of anything I wanted to do and I was a person who was still a child in the sense that I would wait until something was done for me but I kind of needed to just…

WAKE UP! Who’s going to do anything for me now? I have to start moving I have to start making some decisions and actions for myself. Who cares if I end up messing up a bit? That’s okay. What, do I expect never to make a mistake and just not try anything in life? Overdue library books get you overdue fines, and those stop you in your tracks. So I can’t just keep waiting for things to get done. Right now, that’s out my character a bit, not in my script so to speak. I have to change. Can I? Can I really change at this point or are my ways set in stone?  No, I can change. I can’t become someone else, that’s just unnatural, but I can change my attitudes. It’ll be difficult since laziness is my vice, but I can’t stop! I can’t just quit at school even if I want to. Life I know will be 10,000 times harder if I do. This education will make life easier even though it brings some hardships now. I have to make the most of this experience. I have to be, be aggressive! Woo!

SO. Maybe my scholarly life has taken off but it seems my personal life hasn’t. I feel like I hit a snag at home. I mean not cleaning my room doesn’t deserve a ‘what is this world coming to!?!?!?’ kind of lecture does it?  But it’s true I’m not living up to my end of this deal. My parents grow older and I have to grow up as well. It’s tough. We do argue. I realize at times I’m not even really angry sometimes. Do you ever get that? I’ve done things I can say I’m not proud of. It’s not childish things like stealing, although I guess I’ve taken something intangible like, peace. It’s not childish things like yelling over people… well maybe I have been immature. I guess it’s hard to see if something‘s childish when you’re not on the receiving end… listening to the nonsense.  It’s difficult when you realize you’ve been a fool. Although my generation doesn’t always believe it with age comes wisdom most of the time. My parents have been through a lot. Raising eight kids (of which I am the eighth) probably giving up so much of what they wanted for us. I treat them like they’re the children but in reality they know so much more about this world than I do.

LORD. I can’t deny the fact that I’m a Christian. It makes up who I am, even if it’s tough to speak up about it. You might think it’s crazy but it’s love. I’ve been through a lot in my relationship with God and it’s been rocky sometimes but all I want is to move forward and love others, even if just a fraction,  the way that God loved me. I can’t lie; life and people don’t make it easy.

So who am I? Am I a library book stealing, messy, creative, funny, laughing, Christian girl, an artist, a singer, a human, a Queens resident since forever, daughter of a king, a sister, a fool, a girl, an aunt, a genius, someone on the train, an economist, a success?  Who will I be? What will I do? Where will I go?

I’m Elizabeth Urbaez  and  I won’t find out until I get there…

Bright.

Irresponsible.

Promising.

Forgetful.

Creative.

Unorganized.

Brilliant.

Egotistical.

Silly.

Funny.

Scumbag.

Heartless.

Selfish.

Sweet.

Caring.

Selfless.

Talented.

Loser.

Weird.

Embarrassing.

Engrossed.

Cruel.

Childish.

Friendly.

Brave.

Swaggerific.

Hi, I have no clue what to write about or what a monologue is so I Google’d it and found that it was just an interpretation of myself. I also didn’t realize that this is due in about two hours; better get started. As you may have already realized, I am quite a forgetful, blunt, and simple person. Right now, I just remembered I have to read thirty pages of the most uninteresting book about love for tomorrow’s writing class; so boring. Anyways, getting to the point: a visual representation; I have no idea how to represent this over a blog post, except to go on Google, so I’m just going to go on Google and find a picture that determines who I am:

Wow, thinking about it, Google is the best thing man has ever made; it’s too convenient to not use. Like Rodin’s The Thinker, I’m a person that thinks, more than I need to, especially in math class, in which I am very enthusiastically writing this blog post from. Although my personality may seem unpleasant, I do have some redeeming, and artsy qualities, if that helps. My friends do think I’m funny and likeable; writing this in hope of not sounding like an ass. Redeemable qualities: I love my guitar; I love music. (I think this is artsy, pretty sure.) I own a very expensive Martin guitar that I cherish as if it was my life; no one gets near it. Anyways, after reading some of the blog posts, I’m pretty sure that this is all I have to write, hopefully.