Now we can all glamorize and embellish on certain traits and ideals that we’d like to say are true about ourselves but I’ll tell it like it is, as I always do. I was born/raised in Queens and grew up a humble, rough, rugged kid. My parents, like most immigrants, came to America in search of a better lifestyle and worked hard to provide for their respective families. They instilled in me that hard work was essential to success, and that is something I will never forget. So who am I? I won’t bore you with elaborate details but I’m an ambitious young man on the cusp of greatness and I won’t settle for anything less. I love to make others laugh, life is too short to dwell on negativity, if you’re not laughing, you’re not living comrades! I consider myself a music aficionado because I don’t just listen to it as a hobby, it’s an “instrumental” (what a pun!) part of my every day life. I dare anyone to compete with my iTunes Library, it is something to be reckoned with and is nowhere near completion. My favorite artists are Bob Marley, Eminem, 2Pac and The Beatles to name a few. Now this may sound cliché, but I strive to be my own person, unique is too mundane of an adjective but it will have to suffice. From the way I dress, carry myself, and speak I automatically distance myself from the average Indian kid that infest the area in which I live. I used to have long hair and recently cut it for a fresh college experience. But enough of that, on to the next one as Jay-Z would say!
My top three concerns about freshman year at Baruch are:
- Applying myself to the college workload because I’m a chronic procrastinator and was warned by teachers that I will “drown” under the pressure if I don’t change my lethargic ways.
- Interacting with such a vast, dynamic student body. Coming from a small, sheltered high school community of just 600 students this will be interesting to say the least.
- Taking responsibilities and disciplining myself because I’ve never been one to actually sit and study… who does that? I guess we will have to find out!
I think the biggest difference transitioning from high school to Baruch college as stated earlier will be interacting with a student body amassed at 17,000. I attended Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School, yea that’s a mouthful. With around 600 students occupying a relatively small building, surrounded by the same faces, everyone knew one another and it was a small tight knit community. Simple liberties such as using your phone in peace are a sigh of relief as I can actually govern my actions and myself. I’m sure my freshman year at Baruch college will allow me to mature and embrace the character of a young adult, and what better place to do so than in the heart of Manhattan!
A persons’ identity is usually identified by their occupation. Therefore, “I am a student” would be an implied appropriate answer. Yet we are always changing what we do, from one job to the next. Thus, I’d consider, I am what I value, a more broad and yet precise answer. I am a poet, a lover, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a fill in the blank; completed by what I find important. Therefore, my perspective of significant values are the basis and main components of “me”, I am a happiness driven person who strives to feel fulfilled thus conquer self satisfaction. I see myself as an opinionated teenager, a complex individual with a friendly personality. I am a combination of who I “think” I am and what others think I am, yet who I am is where those two perspectives meet. My personality is welcoming enough to allow people to interact with me, yet one of my first concerns as a freshman was finding friends. Not friends like the ones you ask “ what was yesterdays homework” but the one you tell your secrets to. The workload forecast, added to my social dilemma. High school teachers normally forewarn college as a new environment with higher standards. Yet I wasn’t sure whether that was a positive or negative thing, and whether I could adapt to the new realization of a more independent driven college culture. The independent factor also caused me stress. The idea of being alone when figuring things out, Am I ready? I realize now it’s not about being ready, making friends, being overloaded with papers but about time. Give time to the needed and things will work out, look at things in an optimistic manner. In high school, time was something I was aware of and incapable of respecting, I was the procrastinator. I left essays and homework for lazy Sundays and anxious hours before due dates. My three week experience as a freshman has proved my greatly approved theory that my procrastinator days had ended. I’ll have to do work in a more fashioned timely manner to make time for more pleasurable hobbies. In high school I took in golf, an in-depth time consuming sport. Although, it was made easier by the friendly personality my coach possessed, which had given me freedom to take a day off without no repercussion. Bu as a future cross country runner, my layback days are over, I’ll be coached by more strict principles. Such a principle; tardiness, I am not to be late. In high school lateness was the least of my problems. Consequently, change in discipline and structure will in turn help me become a more responsible and sufficient adult. The way I handle my college experience will be the foundation of a better future. I will learn to be fluent, educated, punctual and many other life necessities that will only help me succeed in a competitive world where childish actions are not cute or tolerated.