DTE: Surviving College 101

I love people. Sure there are some bad ones but if you can filter out the toxic ones (and I’m getting SO much better at that), you can find yourself amazed and gratified by the ones you do have around you. Perhaps I’m just being all Pollyanna because I’m happy to be sober, but I like seeing people I like change and grow and flourish and do kind things and have kind things done for them. And I like to, where I can, help any of my friends who aren’t flourishing, because people have reached out and helped me so much, and seeing people happy and reaching their goals is so fulfilling. My psychologist friend says life is about connection, and it is. I hate it so much when people around you tell you that you need to know more peopel and build your social network because you are supposed to, especially when you want to go for a business major. I know that it is quite true but that sounds so on purpose. I like knowing people not because I want to be popular or try to gain some benefits from every one of them. I like knowing people and making friends because I will be able to hear new stories, see different perspectives, and learn at least something from each one of them. A senior student in the school told me that we can only make good friends when we are in freshman year, because as people proceed they start getting busy on internships and works and big companies, chasing their dreams and having no time to care too much about friends and relationship. I don’t know if its true but I guess we ought to treasure the ones that we just have and the ones that we have had for a long time. No one wants to be alone.

Me and my cousin Ryan next to me, Adam on the arm.

Dear family,

Everything’s going well, I’ve been having a lot of fun with the freedom I receive of being out on my own. That being said, you guys were right about how difficult it is out here, when you’re running low on cash and can’t find a job; I don’t even want to know what I would be in for next if it weren’t for you guys. I know I can always count on you when I need to. Friends, lovers come and go, but family always stays. My roommate is awesome; we’ve helped each other out a ton since we’ve become friends. I figured gay or not, I might as well make friends with him. Turns out he’s not actually gay, he’s dating a friend of mine, and yes she is a girl. We’ve been spending a lot of money coming to and from Port Washington that we should’ve just bought a monthly ticket or something. He goes to a different school too, which I found strange since we’re rooming together, but I guess it’s a mix of all the schools; they really don’t care where you go. For me, Baruch is pretty difficult, especially the calculus class with the awful professor that I told you about the first week after I left. My favorite thing about college is the freedom that ensues. I finally moved out of my parents’ house, I can finally do what I want when I want and not get yelled at, and I can see whoever I want whenever I want without bothering anyone in the house. With all of these I have to remember how I got here, and I wouldn’t be here without the help of you guys.

Dad, you raised me strictly, but with a fun side. You were my private fitness instructor and my best friend. Someone I could ask at any point of the day to play ping-pong or videogames with me, someone that would make me dinner from time to time, and would be there when I hurt myself. To be completely honest, however; you were incredibly over the line strict with me and I hated that.

Mom, you were always the lenient parent, the one I would go to about going out or having people over. I always showed you the most affection for that; dad would never let me do anything. You were there when I hurt myself as well, remember the time I tried doing that really dumb trick on the bike? Yeah. You would also always play rummy with me and we got you into ping-pong as well. Remember when dad broke the lawn chair in the basement? Yeah.

Adam, my brother, you weren’t the best brother I could ask for but I am glad I have a sibling. I’ve seen only childs that wish they had any older sibling. You taught me Magic the Gathering and Yugioh.

Last but certainly not least, I have to thank my Uncle Jeff for putting me where I am today. I always loved him and his three sons, but once True Religion took off, we didn’t really talk much. Still I know you love me since you put me up for housing and my college tuition, maybe one day I’ll have the skills to run your business for you.

Writing someone’s “about me” comes along with the implication that there are things you can learn about said person. So there are these descriptions that people lug around, but are new descriptions tacked on to their prized collections of adjectives, or can you smear away a fine layer of dust to discover that they’d been carrying this part of themselves all along?

My name is a mashup of my parents’ names: Joe and Ann, and for the longest time, I spent my time trying to run away from this association. They dedicated part of our house to a memorial of my paternal grandparents, as per Chinese tradition, and I rejected all forms of the typical second-generation Asian immigrant culture. They bowed thrice in front of two faded photographs of my grandparents and planted three incense sticks into the ashes in front of them, and I left my house to get to church on time. It was the morning of Chinese New Year. Their offers to drive me to wherever I needed to go became a great way to check up on everywhere I went, and I stayed out later and later. We never had cheese in the house.

I have my dad’s jaw, my mom’s eyes and her “huck-huck-huck” of a laugh, his incredible willingness and curiosity and her devotion and laziness. I have come to take pride in the small bursts of conversations in Chinese that I’m forced to partake in at work, and for all the fights I’ve gotten into with them over staying out too late with my church friends, I’ve grown to become a pretty straight-laced type of person. I am a steadfast friend and a klutz in time management. I am shy and adventurous at once. I am immensely pleased when people like the things I recommend. My temperament changes according to who I’m with; some would say that I am a people-pleaser. I don’t mind.

These two paragraphs are from my last blog because I have found that I haven’t changed too overwhelmingly in the last month or so. How do I see myself? I attached a picture of me (in Baruch’s computer lab, no less) trying to look all cutesy and whatnot because I couldn’t figure out just one aspect of my life that covered over everything else. Except maybe Christ’s blood. Yep, I’m that Christian but I don’t mind that either.

 (And if you didn’t catch on, Joe and Ann become Joanne in college student form)

My name is Intesar Ahmed, I was born on May 6^th 1993 and I live in Brooklyn. Hmmm. This is sounding more like an autobiography, any who; it has been an interesting one month in Baruch. No more teachers getting on your case because you are not showing up to class or that you are not doing well. More freedom and less written assignments, we have been given more control. But the question is what have I been doing with this new found freedom? Fooling around of course. Instead of studying or catching up on the reading that I didn’t do or even read stuff in advance, I have been spending most of the time in the game room. I suck at table tennis and the pool table is occupied all the time so I have been playing foosball every day during most of my breaks (and I still suck). In conclusion I hope to change myself and work harder and I hope college will help with this task and possibly I wish to also get better at foosball.

I am Austin Chung, born on May 4th, 1993, 18 years old. English is my first language and surprisingly my chinese is really poor. Because of the fact that I grew up in Brighton Beach which is filled with Russians, and that I was basically the only asian/chinese person in my school when i was young. The word “passion” means a strongly willed emotion towards something. I have passion for when it comes to billards or when it comes to my church. Ive been playing billards since my freshman year in high school so about 4 years and it is a big part of my life. Sure i play a lot of sports like basketball and handball, but i find billards to be the one activity that i truly put 100% focus in and that calms me down when i need to. I love the experience of going to a new pool hall and challenging new people i have never met before. So far in my whole life ive joined 3 tournaments and have won 3 tournments, 1 of them being from my own high school billards tournament. Billards also goes together with my church. In my freshman year in high school, i joined a summer school program for kids as a volunteer. Four years later i’m a head teacher in the children’s department and am still currently working there. I love working with kids. Besides working with the kids i go to church every sunday. I’ve become a soldier at my church which is another way of saying i was baptized. And ive even convinced my Lieutenant, in other words the man who owns the building, to add a pool table and ping pong tables on the 3rd floor at my church. So as of now, i am currently a full time student at Baruch College, work in the after-school program at my church after my classes end, work in the saturday program at my church, have responsibilities on sundays as my duty as a christian, and have the time to teach people tips and ways to practice how to become a better billards person at my church. School/Billards/Church. Thank you.

Dear Diary,

I love how I’m writing to a diary.  I love how I HAVE a diary now. I love Baruch College.  It’s such a great environment.   I love my two hour commute in the morning and then in the evening.  I love the smell of the non-fresh, toxic fumes of New York City.  I love making my way up the working escalators.  I love starting my day with meaningful classes like Music in Civilization and History that will help me in life on my quest to pursue a Finance major.  I love how I took many more CollegeNow business classes in high school whereas; I take no business classes now.  I love how being in this college feels like I’m in 13^th grade.  College is so hard. I have to do homework.  I have to read.  I have to procrastinate all my school work until the morning of classes.  I love how I made hundreds of friends this year that I go out with each weekend and party.  I love how I feel like I’m getting that great education that everyone says Baruch has to offer.  I love how I do not feel like a college student at all.  Most importantly, I love my genius calc professor.

I call this picture "Genius in the Zone"

Whats on my mind is inspiration, many people have ideas that influence them, thus I have my own. What inspires me, of course are ideals and imagination, ones that break the limitations of what can or cannot be done. Through those ideas, advancements and more newer ideas can be formed. I have thought about other-worldy ideas as have other people, but imagination is what gives me inspiration. Albert Einstein once said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. This quote inspired me, and imagination in general inspires me. Knowledge has its limits, while imagination has none.  All of this is ambiguous, there is no right and wrong answer. Imagination  is ambiguity as there is no limit to the amount of possibilities one can encounter. Some fictional stories have inspired me such as mystery novels(most notably Sherlock Holmes which I have yet to finish reading). Arthur Donan Coyle has created a very inspiring main character (with great perspective and logical thinking skills) in which I would like to ever meet one day. I’ve also got some crazy imaginations on how the world would be like if it was like a video game. Video games are developed with imagination, just like how fiction books are written. I know a good chunk of people wouldn’t like it, but heck I would, and it sure would be nice to have a retry option in reality. =)

I am Amarnath Kapoor i was born in New Delhi. I lived in New Delhi from 2000-2004 then went back to India and then came back to NYC on 4th of July (nice day to come right ??). I love photography and in my spare time read photography books or look at works of other photographers. Well after a month of college i feel things are really better now because now i have made friends and have joined lexicon (the college’s yearbook) and i get to go to most of the events and shoot pictures for the yearbook. I hope to become a professional nature photographer and have the best gallery of wildlife/nature/landscape photos. Even though i know i might not pursue photography as a career but will definitely always pursue it as a hobby. I have added a gallery so you can see some of the shots that i have taken. The only problem was that this is an old camera but anyways get to shoot with a 5d mark II for lexicon so i’m happy 🙂 and i will upgrade pretty soon. I feel after a month of New York I have finally settled in and have started to enjoy my  time at Baruch. Hope college life gets better with every day that passes by

I am Min Kyu Jeong, I was born and raised in South Korea

Speaking of community service in class, there was a one event that I will never forget. When I was in high school, I visited one institution to provide community services. There were many disabled people who were unable to move at all. To make easy for them to eat meal, chef mixed water, meat, grains and vegetables in one bowl. To add extra nutrition and flavor, they added orange juice on bowl and they continuously pour that watery meal to disabled people. It was shocking at first, but I soon understand that they were unable to move and there were too few people to support them. It was unique experience that left me to think about many things. (oh institution was in Queens not in South Korea just in case some might have misunderstanding)