Author: christian.vargas1

My experience at Baruch has been a bit shaky but has lived up to what I expected college to be like. This first semester has been somewhat of a wake-up call to me; I understand that nothing is going to be spoon-fed to you anymore and you’re responsible for everything that’s required of you in college. To be completely honest I think that this first semester could have gone much better for me if I didn’t prioritize other things over the work that was given to me by my professors but I think I did rather well. If I could have done anything differently during this semester it would have been putting the work that was given to be ahead of everything else and making a better effort to learn as much as I can from every class. Punctuality is definitely something that I should have been working on as well during the first semester (this blog being an example of that). Finally, if I were to reflect upon the ways that I have changed at Baruch I believe that I would have to ask myself in what ways have I not changed. After a semester at Baruch my religious affiliation has changed, I’ve become much more interested in knowing about the world around us, I am more serious towards most issues, and the list goes on. But the one thing that I would have to say is the most important of all these changes is the desire I now have to go out and make a difference in the world.

It’s kind of funny when you come to college the first time and expect to make a choice, but instead you’re just handed a bunch of papers to choose a schedule with classes already fixed for you. Isn’t college all about making choices for yourself? But when you put these things into perspective, I guess we really don’t end up choosing most of the things in our lives. You could ask people from different parts of the world about who your dollar belongs to, but you’ll always get a different answer wherever you are. You might ask the man in Washington, then it’ll belong to the state. You could ask the man in the Vatican, and it’ll belong to God. If you ask the man in Moscow, then it’ll just belong to everyone. The land of the free isn’t even that free anymore when you look at it now. Well, at least next semester I can put a bunch of classes on a piece of paper.

Modern times suck aside from all the benefits that medicine and technology bring us. The quality of music in the mainstream is really one of the things I can’t stand.Creativity in lyrics pretty much just turned into writing about an experience about some party you went to, drugs, and killing people. Well, music really just is a matter of opinion so who am I to say what’s good and what’s bad? To me it really just seems like these artists sit down and flip a coin to decide whether the next song they write is about a) killing people or b) drugs. The media’s also pretty bad in my opinion. Is it really news when we’re talking about things going on in the lives of celebrities instead issues that affect our daily lives? Is Beyonce becoming a mom really a big enough deal that everybody should hear about it? Things could definitely be worse, sure, but as it is now I think we should try and put a little bit of effort into what we broadcast as news. Well, at least Baruch doesn’t suck and the people I’ve met here are some of the more intelligent and nicer people I’ve run into. Hopefully the people I meet today are the people that change things tomorrow.

If I were to define the person that I think I am, I’d have to say shy. I’m not really much of a social butterfly when it comes to meeting new people, but among my friends I think that I’m definitely a loyal and truly caring person. I enjoy making people laugh and helping others in need so I guess I can be labeled as a “do-gooder”. I’m really big when it comes to gaming and usually find myself spending my time on Starcraft II or Heroes of Newerth being competitive among my friends that I think I’m lucky to have. I guess I could be labeled as a gamer too, but that’s beside the point. I’m hoping my time at Baruch College will help me further develop as a kind person.

One of my concerns with my freshman year at Baruch is finding out what group of people I belong with. I’m not really too familiar with my peers at the moment but it’s something that’s constantly at the back of my mind while I’m in class or doing work related to class. I guess I can consider work to be among my worries as well. The difficulty between the work that was required of me during my high school years and the work that I have to deal with now is pretty significant and the fact that you’re responsible for what’s to be done for class just adds on to my worries. The only other thing that really concerns me is punctuality with my classes. Waking up at 6am for a political science class that starts at 7:50am doesn’t really help me when I’m notorious at my old school for never showing up on time.

I really expect my experiences at college to be unique and ultimately change me in a better way. The fact that we aren’t being being spoon-fed the work and materials required for each course is obviously a pretty big change when making the switch from high school to college and as a result it’s probably going to make me become more responsible when dealing with these things. Another reason I believe Baruch is going to be unique is the fact that socializing with others is a pretty large part of college and involvement with the school with all the clubs you see on the 2nd floor of the vertical campus further proves that point. I think college is going to make me a more outgoing person and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for me.