Monthly Archives: October 2011

Hello Professor,

I am writing to you with regards to yesterday’s midterm. I was unable to attend class yesterday because my grandfather had collapsed and I was the only one who was able to bring him to the hospital. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but can you allow me to make it up?

– Lawrence Kuang

Yo. I know most of you, but I guess there’s one or two of you I don’t really know, so I guess I’ll tell you guys about myself. My name’s Lawrence. I’m a freshman at Baruch College, graduation from Brooklyn Technical High School. I live in Brooklyn. I play a lot of sports; tennis, handball, volleyball, but I’m always up for learning other sports. I work out a little bit. I spend like 10-20mins on my hair every day, unless I get really lazy and decide to just leave it down for the day, looking like a mushroom. I think I’m kind of funny. I say “I think” because I don’t really know. I never really met myself. It’s not like I can just be like
“Hello Lawrence.”
“Hello, nice to meet you.”
“Wanna hear a joke?”
“Sure.”
“What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit?”
“I dunno.”
“Ba-Na-Na-Naaaaaa”
“Oh. (Laughs) I get it. You funny.”
“Oh. Thank you.”

So I am afraid of the dark. I remember my friend back in Junior High School said, “People are afraid of the dark because they always imagine the worst possible thing.” When I thought about it, yea its true. Just recently, I wanted a cup of milk, so I went to the fridge and took out a gallon of milk, and you know the gallons have a small cap on top? Yeah so I put it on the counter and turned around to get a cup. All of a sudden, the cap just pops out and goes up to around 3 feet in the air. I was like WTF. As I was turning back around, I was telling myself all kinds of scientific explanation to make myself not scared. “Don’t worry Lawrence, Don’t worry. The room temperature is much warmer than the temperature of the gallon, so the pressure inside the gallon increased to an extent that it can make the cap fly up 3 feet.” Yea. I didn’t work. I was scared, like crazy.
School’s alright. Nothing special. It’s almost exactly what I expected it to be except for the fact that I don’t get much homework. I’m a gigantic procrastinator. I don’t procrastinate till the last minute, I procrastinate till the last second. This monologue that I’m reading right now, I didn’t do it last night, I did it this morning. I thought this habit would go away after I got into college, but it didn’t

I guess I’m running out of time, so I guess I’ll mention a little bit about each of the free writing exercises we’ve had. Winning games, hanging out with my friends,  and my girlfriend make me happy. Friends, family, and my girlfriend are important to me. I haven’t gone to a library outside of school for a very long time. I’ll be using the Newman Library for research and homework purposes. I like my personality, my physique, my brains, and my curiosity. I don’t like my hair. I identify myself as a competitive, intelligent, lazy, hardworking person. Some people say I’m obnoxious. I have no idea where they get that from. My roles in life are lil bro, good child, curious student. School’s fine, procrastination is my biggest challenge and I enjoy the lack of homework.

I am a student at Baruch that plans to major in Business. I’m a Brooklyn Tech graduate. I’m not a morning person. I oversleep alot. I’m scared of failing classes at Baruch and getting a bad GPA. I love drinking coffee in the morning but recently decided to stop. I like chocolate chip cookies and red velvet cake. I like seafood and eating out. I enjoy hanging out with friends. I like visiting new places. I don’t like spiders.

College is similar to high school. Everyone always pushes to get into the elevators.  I easily lose track of whats going on. I fall asleep after like 5 minutes of reading textbooks. I like it when teachers curve tests. Thursdays are my new Fridays. I have a 3-day weekend.

Dear Professor Tariq

I am emailing you in regards to the assignment that was due today. Unfortunately, I could not attend your class and hand in the paper due to a family emergency (which I will prove the next time I have you). Attached is my completed assignment.

Sincerely,

Mordakhay Kholdarov

Monologue: Mordakhay Kholdarov

I wanna talk about giving today and what it truly means to give. Say there is a poor person begging for money. Do you give money to him? Is it truly giving? Pretend someone wants your attention. Do you give it to them? Is that truly giving? By definition, giving means to provide for someone else, right? But what if the only real person you’re providing for is yourself?

Now pretend you’re a parent to a child, or an older brother or sister to a younger sibling. That younger child brings to you a not so pretty drawing they made in school. What do you say? “Oh it’s magnificent! Did you make that yourself?” Why do you say that? Because it’s the thought that matters, right? Meaning, that the end result of any action is in the initial thought. Therefore we have to look at a person’s intentions (their motives) before determining whether or not a certain action is indeed an act of giving.

Now we have to look at what motivates people to move, or to work, or to do something in general. The answer is reward, be it money, power, honor. Why do people go on strike? It’s because they don’t feel they’re being rewarded enough based on their work, hence they stop working; the motivating force (money) is not great enough to compensate their work. Is it plausible then to say that people won’t give without a reward either? Molecular psychiatry states that during an act of giving there is a release of the chemical dopamine (pleasure chemical) in the brain. Now let’s go back to the notion of the end result of any action is in the initial thought. If I initially want to be rewarded (motive) by giving (act) then aren’t I really receiving? Does the notion of giving even exist?

Now look at “non-profit” organizations and “charities”. Why hasn’t there been a decrease in poverty or famine stricken areas? Why is there so much suffering in the world despite this entire “giving” taking place? It’s because we’re exploiting each other by “giving” or “helping” because taking from someone is the reason to why you’re giving them in the first place. The reason why I’m saying this is not to shoot down charities or nonprofit organizations, but to make you guys realize that if 6.5 billion people in the world operate in a manner where they only take and don’t give, the there will be economic, familial, ecological, and many other problems persisting and getting worse and worse every day. Since I only have three minutes I’ll have to end this monologue by saying that if we understand what it means to truly give and operate in accordance with nature and its laws (mutual balance and harmony), then not only will we truly give, but much of our problems will cease exist.

Dear Professor Getzen,

I am concerned about my grade for Study Guide #1.  I can clearly see that my original grade of 8.0 was changed to 7.5. I think I deserved the B- and I want to inquire on why there was white out over it.

With the best regards,

Kriss Ramjattan

Good Evening Professor,

I write to you as I am concerned that an error may have occured relative to my grade. The grade I have received is a B-, however, according to the rubric and returned documents the grade I have earned should be an A.  I would like to discuss this in person rather than through e-mail. If possible, I would like to meet during your office hours at your earliest convenience. If an appointment cannot be made, then I will pursue this reevaluation via e-mail.

Regards,

Jeffrey Leung

Scenario: Your professor gave you a B-

Hello Professor,

I have a question with regards to my grade that I received in your class this semester. According to my own records I haven’t received a grade lower than an A- and have been actively participating in class discussion. Which leads me to think that an error has occurred in my grade.

I was wondering if we could set up a conference to settle this possible confusion. Please feel free to contact me I would really appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Samantha Ma

 I’m full Japanese born in NY, raised in several countries; most people just assume I’m a Japanese American from the tropical land of Hawaii. As of my family, I have a mom who cooks amazing food and beats me in tennis, an obtuse dad that obeys what mom says no matter what, and a crazy loving sister that likes to control everything I say, own and act. Many of my friends tell me that I’m not the typical Japanese girl; they say I’m funny, joke around a lot, do crazy outrageous things as if there’s no tomorrow, a good listener, entertain people, and challenge myself. I am probably pretty self-conscious because the Japanese culture, which I was brought up in, was based one standard and most of the Japanese people followed it. So if you don’t look or behave similar to others, you are a total misfit. It was honestly very hard for me to fit in not only in Japan but wherever community I was in. Anyways, if the world was to end tomorrow, which is the question I like to think about all the time, I will go to a warm deserted island with someone I care about a lot. If not, I’ll fight against the sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. What I love to do is go to the beach near my house in Japan and watch the waves, sunrise, sunset and feel that you are living the moment.

 I really think my mood swings due to the weather. As I was born in October, I love the season of fall the most; crispy autumn breeze tingling your face and brushing your hair, wearing a light scarf with some earthy colored layers, not too humid and sticky hot like in the summer but not freezing cold, the leaves changing its colors to reddish yellow. Fall is the best season to eat warm apple pie with vanilla ice-cream mmmm….

What is it like to be dead? Will your soul still be there? What is the purpose of living your whole life if you’re gonna be dead anyways? Live a short life with drama or a long life with lots of memories? Whenever I think about what will happen in my later life, I just get creeped out and can’t think about anything anymore. But the more I think about what will happen after I die, the more things start not to make sense to me in the current life I am living in; why are we living? Why are we trying to compete with each other to have a better life than them? (but the sarcastic part to this is that I ask this kind of question to myself and hoping to major in finance at Baruch and eventually work wallstreet getting somewhat annoyed by the wall street hippies.) Why are we trying to be the best in everything when you’re gonna end up dead anyways? But the more I think, the more I get miserable not being able to find a solid reason that I can agree on so I just think like this; Live the life you love. Love the life you live.  Life is only once; do what ever you got to do. Don’t be scared, just do it. Makes loads of mistakes; whatever you do, at the end it’ll be your history.

People want what they don’t have. Keep on desiring. Because you won’t get it until you actually stand up and make an action.

How to write a letter to your professor when you missed your midterm;

Dear professor,

I am writing a letter to you regards as I could not take the midterm last week. I had to go to another state to attend a funeral for one of my relatives that day. Will there be any way for me to take the midterms this week or the following week?  I would like to talk to you in person if necessary.

Thank you for your time

Kind regards,

Mana