FRO 1000 – BFA

Coming in to my first semester at Baruch College i expected to be bombarded with work every night and thought i was going to have to work my ass off to do well. Looking back at this first semester, thats not how it was at all. I feel like i have been cruising along; having so much down time and putting effort into my work also. Getting good grades wasn’t even this easy in high school.I realize that i should enjoy this time because in my coming semesters at Baruch College the workload is probably going to get harder.

As far as the campus goes, i am not really the biggest fan. Most of this semester i would go to my classes and immediately leave to go to work when they ended.

College has definitely changed me. It has made more mature and serious about life. In order to be successful you can’t just go out every night and get hammered. There has to be a balance between school, work, and fun.

It was a cold spring morning in April. The swell forecast from the night before predicted 5-7 foot waves and offshore winds, the ingredients for perfect surf in New Jersey. My brother and I pulled up to the beach and immediately saw the corduroy sets lining the horizon. That nervous, excited feeling started to fill my stomach got out of the car to take a closer look. As we stepped onto the sand we realized that the forecast was spot on. The waves looked epic.

We quickly slipped on our thick wetsuits, which were still damp from our session the day before. As I was paddling out I just kept staring through the massive barrels of the breaking waves. A few minutes later I took my first wave of the day. Dropped in, 2 pumps, closeout. Although the wave ended shortly I could feel the power under my board and the potential of the waves for the next few hours. After about four hours we got out of the water because our arm muscles were giving out. My brother took a look back at the lineup and insisted that we go back out and take one more wave because the waves were just so good. So I followed him back in.

The second we got back into the lineup I saw the most perfect wave coming right towards me. I looked at my brother, Abe, and he was too deep. He shouted, “Go! Man! GOOO!” I took two hard paddles and the greatest wave of my life began. I quickly popped up to my feet and looked down the line to assess what the wave was doing. This Thing was massive and super pitchy; just about to barrel perfectly. I had a little too much speed so I rode to the bottom of the wave, did a bottom turn and pulled right up under the lip of the wave. The feelings of the next few seconds are pretty much indescribable. I was inside the wave, in the barrel. The sun was shinning through and there was golden aura of light and water spherically surrounding me. Everything else in the world seemed to fade away and not matter. I felt this crazy high and it was so addicting. Ok, back to consciousness I have to make it out of here. I saw the diagonal lip breaking in front of me and the opening at the end of the wave. I gained a little more speed and came flying out of the barrel back in to the real world. I was just stoked out of my mind and I will never forget that feeling and that wave as long as I live.

Baruch College pretty much lived up to what I thought it would be. I wasn’t expecting it to be a college with a huge campus, where there are crazy frat parties. I pretty much thought that I would go to school, treat it like high school, and when the day is finished I would go home.  Which is exactly how it is for me. I’m not upset with choosing Baruch College.  I wasn’t looking for a campus with crazy parties. I wanted to be somewhere close to home.

My first semester at Baruch till this point was pretty good. I’ve been doing very well in school, which I am extremely happy about. I made a lot of new friends, which is always a plus. Overall I would say it was a good semester.

If I could restart my college career at Baruch, I would do a lot of things different. I would definitely take school more serious, and not wait till the last second to do all my work. I would also pick a different block, because I can’t stand waking up at 7:50 in the morning every Wednesday and Friday. Having school on Friday is terrible.

Although I became much more knowledgeable, and have now almost completed my first semester of college, I don’t think I have changed at all. I am a little more mature now then I was when I entered college, but other then that nothing has changed.

Helping others is crucial for the world to be a better place. People get so caught up in their own life that they forget that so many more people have it worse. It’s not much of a consultation prize but to put it in realistic terms, people get mad over a c+ on a test but some people aren’t even fortunate enough to have a roof over their head. SO I’m just saying, that if you were in that position, wouldn’t you want people to understand, forgive and give you help? That doesn’t mean donate money to every homeless person you see, but a small deed can go a long way. Try and be optimistic but without being naive. Stuff happens, but it’s how we deal with that stuff that defines us as a person. This ties into community service because it is a good way to be that person that actually cared and wanted to make a difference. It’s kind of weird to think about but if everyone had a caring mentality and weren’t so quick to blame or judge, human morality would be in a better place. SO when you get frustrated, take a step back and put things into perspective. Take the time to help someone in need because karma may be a valuable asset to have, and if not I’m pretty sure it’ll make you feel better about yourself and anything that happens from then on, you can take in stride. So bottom line, community service is a vital aspect to trying to make the world a better places and if there is time to even do a small deed, take advantage of it and you’ll see how it feels.

Well to be completely honest.. Baruch is pretty much what i expected. Not really any campus life, mostly bad teachers for freshman since baruch probably only cares about its business school. Also it is impossible to get helped anywhere at this school. You go to bursar and they tell you to go somewhere else. I’m coming here because it’s the cheapest option but its hard to make the most of it when you have terrible teachers and administration who don’t want to be bothered with your problems. Anyway, on the positive side of it all, we do go to school in the greatest city in the world. So glad I dorm here, it makes everything worth while. Exploring the city with friends is an awesome experience.

I think I have done well this semester. As I said before its hard to care about school when your teachers don’t even care about you and care about everything else they have to do more. But its whatever, I’m pleased with the grades I get. It’s just annoying sometimes to study for about 15 hours for a test and end up with a 53. That made me stop trying all together. Maybe next semester I’ll change but I’m not about getting stressed over work. I’ll work hard, and when I get into the job world I’ll be the best I can be but I can’t let that life and those thoughts consume me. I just want to enjoy life and I have a great city in front of me and great friends by my side so I don’t want to get too caught up to the point where I let that opportunity float right on by. I mean there is no campus which is annoying and you can’t go to football games on a Saturday with everyone and build school spirit but hey I try to think on the positives and there are way too many for me to complain about everything else. And that is how I have changed over this semester, I have become a more mature person and I’m happy with who I am so yea, Baruch isn’t too shabby but for Baruch to be on the top 10 list with most unhappy students with its university says something about the school. Anyway I’m done. I think I’ll go wait for an elevator for a good 5 minutes.

Baruch was awesome this semester! I really enjoyed all of my classes and I liked most of my professors. It turned out to be much better then I expected and I really had  great experience meeting a lot of new people and making tons of friends. I hope everything I learned from this semester will help make next semester even better!

hello! My name is Kristen and i am really excited to be attending Baruch this year. I am on the volleyball team here so I hope it doesn’t take up to much of my study time, but other then that also really excited to continue playing. I hope Baruch turns out to be a great experience and somewhere I can enjoy being for the next four years.

It was finally here! It was January 17th, 2010. The date I’ve been waiting for, for over 9 months. I woke up at 6:45am, after a restless night of sleep, due to the adrenaline rushing through my entire body. It was finally here, the first day of my ski season. I jumped out of bed and repeated my usual ski routine from previous years. I brushed my teeth, and threw on my ski clothing. After I ate my breakfast, I was out the door. It was a beautiful blue bird day. As I waited for the shuttle to take me to the mountain, I could hear my heart pounding. Finally the bus came. It felt like the longest ride of my life. It was only a 1-mile ride to the mountain. When I got to the mountain, I jumped off the bus strapped my boots on, connected to my skis and got on the lift line. I was seconds away. As I took the lift up, I could feel the cold fresh air blowing through my goggles, and hitting me in the face. There was no better feeling. I got off the lift, and skied to my first run of the season. I drop in; make a beautiful carving turn right, then left. My legs are burning with hurt, joy, and happiness from skiing so hard and intense. What a first run!

FRO Monologue