Category Archives: Monologues

All right. K, so I’m not entirely sure of how to describe myself. Like, I mean… sure I’m Pakistani, Muslim and eighteen years old with almost a February birthday. My favorite softdrink is Pepsi!, I love seeing movies with friends and family, and I’ve snuck in pretty much everything into theatres with my family! I remember sneaking pizza (with pepsi of course ) , chips, fried chicken, burger king and chinese food (I’ma stick with chips from now on) and last year I used to see a movie pretty much every week with one of my older cousins and brothers, I have three brothers, and a HUGE family! My grandmother had 8 kids and many of her kids (my uncles) had four children, so I have a LOT of cousins! My high school experience was AMAZING! I feel like I walked into the building a confused awkward semi-emo kid and left my high school… a still confused kid with a nicer personality, more confidence and good friends! If my college experience follows up my high school experience than I can’t wait!  I like adventures and joking around and having fun! As you probably guessed, I really love my family, and look forward to celebrations, and though my parents are immigrants, they’ve assimilated into the culture really well, my larger family actually has a newyears party with my larger family every year! IF that doesn’t describe me well enough than I’m a 5″6-5″7 18 year old who likes hanging out with family and friends and listening to music i guess. Pretty average stuff huh?

In high school, I was in the chess and fencing teams, and I’m kinda sad that Baruch doesn’t really have any of them , but I guess it just means I’m gonna have to become good at more things! Though I did join the MSA- that is the Muslim Student Association, and try to help them out whenever possible. but I still kinda miss the thrill of competition! I was in the fencing team for three years and eventually became the leader of the “epee” branch of fencing, and became chess club captain! lol, so i’m kinda competitive. lol but i think that team spirit is more rewarding! being part of a group that needs eachother is a pretty awesome and rewarding experience! and i hope to join more clubs and teams soon!

Me at families new years party with sparklers

I define myself in many ways, but what is most important to me is that I am a Filipino. The cultural values and traditions that are part of the Philippines influence how I live my life each day. Common characteristics among Filipinos are kindness, strong work ethic, and intense passion. Another important Filipino value is the concept of family, and I always love to carry on that concept in my life. I love to my immediate family, but my group of friends from high school is sort of like my family as well. The idea of being together and being part of a something bigger than you inspires me to be the best version of myself when I live my life. Besides my race, I like to describe myself as a good-hearted person that is willing to help others, open-minded, and eager to try new things. I’m from upstate New York, and the suburbs are quite different from city life. I recently moved to an apartment in queens to attend school here, and the transition has gone well. I’m starting to get used to the crazy, strange, and wonderful things the city provides; you have to take the good with the bad. A lot of people know me for being the “sneaker” guy, and its true I love to collect sneakers, resell sneakers, and appreciate the entire underground sneaker culture. Besides materialistic nonsense like sneakers and clothes, I love art (especially photography). I took photography in high school and it is a killer hobby; it allows you to perceive the world in a different light, as well as preserve timeless memories. Music is another major part of my life; I would die without it. The beautiful aspect about music is its ability to inspire, relax, excite, and relate to my life. I am a big hip-hop aficionado, but R&B music is my absolute favorite, (most likely because I grew up listening to it).

While making money is one of my goals when I leave college, I want to pursue something bigger. I want to change the world. If I were to have a career that involved the concept of business but required the amount of passion and creativity that art evokes out of a person, I would be truly happy. 

My name is Ahnaf Miah. I was born at Sunnyside, NY and I currently live in long island.  Long Island is really an awesome place to live school wise and living wise compared to queens, even though those were the best years of my life so far.  I love to play basketball, handball, go watch movies, sleeping, eating, playing videogames and spending time with friends and family. Friends and family matter to me most because they are the only people who will stick by your side through thick or thin. I also forgot to mention that I LOVE to drive. The feeling that you get when you drive is indescribable. What I hate is the commute from my house to Baruch, waking up early to go to school, being bored and doing chores. I believe that I am kind, passionate, decently smart and decently good in everything I do. The roles that I play in my life are to be a good brother, good son and good friend. I am not really afraid of a lot of things but I am afraid of doing badly on major exams, presenting in front of the class and getting caught doing something bad. There has been a lot of embarrassing moments in my life but a recent one was when I was trying to download a movie in the living room with my dad there and a very disturbing pop-up video showed up. I pressed the mute button as quickly as I could and I was shook. Luckily my dad didn’t notice because he had his eyes and ears glued to CNN. A moment in which I feel empowered is when I am a group leader for class assignments or when I am the reason my team is winning in basketball. For Baruch, my main concerns are getting good grades, handing all my work in on time and trying to adapt to college life because I still have “senioritis” from my senior year in high school. Even with these concerns, I am still looking forward to continuing my education here at Baruch college and hopefully get a good job as a result from it. 

Before I moved Otisville, NY I called the Bronx my home.  In my eyes the Bronx had everything a person could ever want.  There was a corner store on every block that never seems to close.  The only animals you would have to worry
about were dogs and cats.  In the city in general there is always some means of transportation walking, train, bus, taxi, and driving.  Also there is more of a variety when you want to hang out with friends and family.  Also school was much different for me in my elementary/middle school most of the kids in the school were either Black or Spanish.  Even afterschool you have more of a choice in what you want to do.  I used to go to the Montefiore community center and play basketball and football and hang out with friends in a safe environment until my brother came and pick me up.  But all of that changed when I moved it has really shaped my personality today.

When I first moved everything in my eyes was weird. The town that I moved to had a little town square that consisted of a post office, deli, and church.  The nearest grocery store was ten miles away so the only way to get there was by car.  Not to mention all of the stores closed at eight the latest nine unless it was Wal-Mart.  High School was very difficult because I had came from a dominantly all black and Spanish school and now I was going to a dominantly white school.  Everything about the school was different even the sports we played. In my old school we only really played basketball baseball and football but when I moved I was introduced to a whole new world of sports.  At first I thought badminton, tennis, racquetball, archery, Kan Jam and ultimate Frisbee were the worst sports ever because I suck at them.  But when I started to get better at them I actually started to enjoy playing badminton, archery, ultimate Frisbee, and Kan Jam outside of school with my friends.  Also since there wasn’t much else to do afterschool but play sports and join clubs it was easy for kid s to start falling into bad habits like drugs and alcohol.

At I resented my mom for making me move away from my home in the city but now I understand why she did it.  In her own way she helped me get used to the real world in that I am not always going to work with people
I am comfortable with but I have to learn how to work with people from a different background from mine.  Also if I
had stayed down in the city I wouldn’t have my own car or even a license.  Moving also exposed me to new things that I would have never done if I had stayed in the city. When I lived in the Bronx I used to make fun of the people who ride the “cheese” bus to school every day.  Then when I moved I became one of those people who took the cheese bus to school every day until senior year.  Moreover this past summer I was able to get over my fear of heights when one day at work I went in a hot air balloon for the first time in my life. Even I resented leaving my the Bronx I think it has made me a more well rounded person in life.

Since I don’t know how to describe myself, I think I’ll just say that I love my family. Without them, I wouldn’t be who I am today and I wouldn’t have been able to experience certain things.

I usually spend most of my summers visiting my family. I look forward to the summertime because it means that I can finally get out of the city for a while. With the exception of Hong Kong, my family and I traveled by car to our destination. You know what that means: road trip! I love road trips, except when I have to go to the bathroom and there’s nothing in sight for the next 40 miles. My dad’s usually at the steering wheel with my mom at his side, whose job is to keep him awake and sing along to the CDs she brings with her. My brother brings his big headphones so he won’t have to hear me talk, but my job is to be an annoying sister. Our usual destination was Canada, where my uncle and cousins lived, but I loved Michigan, where the rest of my mother’s side of the family lived. Don’t get me wrong- I love Canadians, but something about Michigan draws me in.

Last summer was the first summer I spent without my mom, dad, and brother. My dad couldn’t get vacation days, my brother was too busy with college stuff to go on vacation, and my mom just didn’t feel like going anywhere. I decided that I wanted to do something with my last summer before college, so I thought about going to Michigan. Of course, my mom didn’t let me go by myself even though my dad already agreed to it. I begged and annoyed her for at least two weeks before she finally gave in. It was a great experience, even though it did get a little scary at night (I took the bus there). When I arrived, my aunt and cousin picked me up and I stayed at my grandparents’ house. I was alone this time, so I had to do things my mom would normally do for me, like doing my own laundry. Since one of my aunts thought I might be too bored by myself, she tried to bring me places to have fun. It was the first time I ever went to a music festival and ate at Krispy Kreme (a donut place that is a thousand times better than Dunkin’ Donuts). It was also the first time I went on a boat and chilled near a lake. It was a great experience for me to start acting like an adult but still have fun at the same time. I learned new things, like how not to be bored when watching a hockey game. At times, I missed my best friends, but that wasn’t anything that the internet and phone couldn’t fix. I loved how pretty Michigan was, and it was definitely a vacation I needed to take before school started.

My family expects me to do well in college this year, so (hopefully) I won’t let them down.

Who am I?

Now, finally there’s a question that I can answer without any hesitation. And the answer is: I have no idea.

Well, for the most part, I would like to think that I am not that different from any other 18-year-old guy. There are things I enjoy and things I hate. I spent the first 10 years of my life in Beijing,China; and I’ll soon be completing the second ten years here in New York. I remember that before I came here, I told my mom that I don’t want to leave China and that I will never enjoy living in the US; “wait ‘till you complete your next ten years”, she responded, “then see if you’ll have the same answer”.

And as amazing as it might seem, I think my mom was right.

My first few years here were extremely boring. I came here in the middle of 5^th grade, and I wasn’t able to hold a proper conversation with anyone at school. I was a bit intimidated by everything in this strange new environment. But still, I liked it; because if I was still in China there would already of tons of assignments everyday waiting for me. Here I hardly have any homework.

It wasn’t until the second year that I began to try speak  in English. Now that I think of it my English must have been horrible back then; but all the kids in my class were very friendly, so it was a smooth transition for me.

Over the next few years, I became interested in tennis. I guess I was fairly talented at it, so I was always a little bit ahead of everyone. Ever since then, tennis has been “my thing”. I was upset that junior high schools in NYC don’t have sports teams, but once I started high school, I went to apply for the team on the very first day.

I’ve been on my school’s varsity team ever since then. While I was on the team, we’ve beaten some of the best tennis teams in the city, including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Townsend Harris and more. We’re also the first school to defeat Benjamin Cardozo at their home game ever since their courts were built.

During my junior year in high school, I became interested in photography. I was lucky that the photography teacher at my school was actually a professional photographer. In that class, I slowly started to master the fundamentals of taking pictures. Over time, I would try to add in a little bit of “me” into every picture I take.

I do not believe in any specific type of religion, because science has always been able to offer a better explaination. But I do believe that, there is some sort of a supreme being out there that’s way more intelligent and more powerful than we are; simply because of how complicated this universe is.

Coming back to the topic of “Who am I”, personally I think it is impossible for us to have an accurate view of ourselves. Plus, I remember this very interesting idea from my favorite anime. The idea is complicated, but I will try to use myself as an example to explain.

The idea is that, whenever I am interacting with someone, there’s the Andy in my own mind, and the Andy in the other person’s mind. It is when these two Andys come together, that’s the true Andy at that particular moment.

I know, some of you right now are probably like “WTF o.O……”

At last, I would like to share with you some of my favorite pictures that I took over this past year.

Enjoy, and take care.

Who am I? Well, I used to be adventurous and not have even an ounce of fear in me.  I was always the dare devil willing to do anything.  That is, until the first day of my summer when I was ten years old, the day my biggest fear was born.  I always loved being outdoors; I would go outside right after breakfast and only go inside when my mom made me.  On this particular day, it was absolutely beautiful out; the birds were chirping and the sun was shining.  I was playing outside with my cousins when I
decided to do the unexplainable.  For whatever reason, I decided to climb up a tree in my backyard, in clogs none the
less.  When I reached the top which was about thirty feet in the air, my shoe fell off because it had no back.  My cousin is only a year older than me so at the time we had no idea how stupid our next decision would be.  Tommy (my cousin) and I decided to throw my shoe up to me and all I would have to do is catch it and grab onto a different
branch quickly before I fell.  Neither of us realized this was an almost impossible task and that something could seriously go wrong.

As you could possibly guess, we were terribly wrong there was no way after I let go of the branch I could grasp another and in an instant I went tumbling down hitting every branch below me. When our parents heard the cracking of the branches they came running and found me laying there silent on the ground and Tommy screaming with fear. I don’t remember my landing but I do remember the stories everyone told.  I didn’t cry, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t even breath, I just laid there. Everyone hovered over me and all I could see was blur.  No one knew what to do, they were all afraid to touch me because they knew something was definitely wrong.

When the ambulance came my mom always says that’s when it hit her, I may never be able to walk again.  She blamed herself for not watching closer but we all know it really isn’t her fault.  When I went into the hospital the doctor had discovered I had a severe concussion, I shattered my elbow, dislocated my wrist and my shoulder, they didn’t know if I would be able to play softball ever again, my parents knew this would not go over well.  As the doctors kept working they realized I was very lucky, If I landed just a few centimeters more on my back then on myarm I would have broken my back or worse I could have been paralyzed.

With many months of rehab therapists were able to get my arm to full strength again.  But they  could not remove the fear I have instilled in my brain forever, the fear of heights.  I used to be able to do anything I wanted and then if I even got on top of a bunk bed I got nauseous.  After the accident I would have these horrible nightmares that I would be falling out of the tree but never land.  This nightmare had taunted me for years, that ais until my boyfriend made me get over it.  One day last year we went for a ride, I had no idea where we were going.  Two and a half hours of driving in a car building up suspense we finally arrived.  We were upstate and it was gorgeous, we were overlooking a cliff with a beautiful stream flowing under it, when we got out of the car I asked, “This is beautiful, but why are we here?” Alex, my boyfriend
then told me “at some point in your life you need to get over your fears, so we are not leaving until you jump.” I immediately had a panic attack, how could I do that??? How could Alex make me do this??? Alex reassured me he would jump first and show me it was safe and jump with me when it was my turn but this did not help.  I did not want to jump at all.  Alex and I sat on the ledge for three hours, I must have made him jump a dozen times before I did then finally, I decided to take the risk.  I will never regret that jump, it was liberating, although heights still scare me, I know with help of others I can overcome anything and everything that I want.  I am unstoppable.  Now I know that although being away from the ground may freak me out I will be fine, I can do it.

I count this as a big part of me because for so long I was held back by my fears, we would go to an adventure park and I would spend money to walk around and watch people have fun, I was restraining myself from experiencing things.  I hated plane rides and would have to take medicine to sleep through the ride so I wouldn’t freak
myself out.  This past winter I went parasailing, no one in my family could believe I was going to do it and my mother almost cried when she saw me.  Although it made
me very nervous, I was not going to do it, it was more like a nervous excitement.

Although this is not everything about me it is a big part. By one stupid action I could have changed my whole life, possibly no more
playing ball, no more fearlessness and I almost lost my ability to walk.  At a young age I learned to not take the little things for granted, live life the way you want but don’t let a freak accident shape your mind, overcome everything possible and never back down. And lastly, I learned to always believe in myself, even when things seem
impossible, they aren’t, with a little help you can get through anything.

There are moments in a persons life where a single event can make a drastic change in that persons life. I was always the shy, quiet guy who just sat around and observed. I was never really a leader in anything I did. I was just a normal guy living in a normal world. My life changing experience took place when I was studying abroad in Israel last year. I was on a football team for about 2 months. My teams record was 2-7 at that point and we really didn’t look like we had any chance of making the playoffs. That’s when my friends all got together and decided that it was time for a change and that I should be the quarterback leading this team. I was excited at first, but a little nervous at the same time. When my first game came, words couldn’t describe how nervous I was. I went to Kraft stadium where the games were played, it just happened to be that my first game at quarterback was on a Saturday night. I got in my first game and played pretty well, we won both our games on that night. I had this great feeling in me, I led my team to victory. We finished the season 9-9 and missed the playoffs by one spot. But, it was still one of the greatest times of my life. I went from being the quiet guy to being a leader. I was the one telling people what to do, and calling the plays. I even made up the plays. That was my first real leadership role, where I felt like I made a difference.

I live in Great Neck, i’m 18 years old. I have one older sister and 2 younger brothers.I make the commute to Baruch everyday, which wastes about 2 hours of my life a day, but what can you do. Baruch has been a pretty good experience so far. I’ve met some cool people, and created some great relationships. The work has been a bit different from what I was accustomed to. I never had to do so much work before in my life. I plan to major in accounting and I hope to pursue a career in that area.I have a personal motto which goes like this “with hard work comes success.” This is my motto because I believe that if i really want something, I can always achieve it. If I have to fight for it or work hard for it I will if it’s important enough. I tell myself all the time, “if you want this your going to have to work for it.” I believe this motto will help me get far in life; and hopefully, with help from Baruch, I can become a leader and accomplish a lot during my college years, and eventually a lifetime.

Post the monologue you’ve developed, along with a self-portrait (which can be a photograph, an image, a cartoon, a drawing, or some other depiction of how you see yourself)

Post the monologue you’ve developed, along with a self-portrait (which can be a photograph, an image, a cartoon, a drawing, or some other depiction of how you see yourself)

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