DTE: Surviving College 101

Ive done my fair share of community service in high school. I was helping my community, meeting new people, and generally doing a good deed. However, id be lying if i said it wasnt a bit tedious at times, expecially since i wasnt getting paid for all those hours of work. I thought that college would be all about studying for finals and catching up on essays, and not doing more community service. BUT, since it was a requirement, i found that it was surprisingly easy to go and do a little bit more, since a) i was used to it, and knew how everything worked, and b) it was only for a few hours. On November 25th, i went with Vincent to P.S. 20 to help at a daycare. It was vincent who had worked at the place before, not me. So, i was once again entering new territory. However, i had worked with young children before, so the i easily got back in the routine. If you think of daycare as playing games and doing arts and crafts with the kids instead of a job, youll find that the experience is enjoyable, and even very emotional when you finish your service. The kids were energetic and happy, as most young children are. Since it was cold, there was the added bonus of staying inside. We simply watched over the kids as they played in the gym, and sometimes joined in in games like kickball. Since there was a senior councilor there, we never had to make any hard decisions, so in a way it was sort of like taking care of a younger sibling. We went there sometime around noon, and stayed and helped until the kid’s parents came to pick them up. It was overall a fun experience, and i made a lot of new friends. I am of the opinion that daycare is the best kind of community service, because you dont view it as a job, but as an extracurriculat activity. If anyone needs to do community service, or simply likes to help their community, i would strongly recommend daycare. Like i said before, you are not only doing a good deed, you are also setting an example for the next generation, and showing them that it is good to be responsible in society.

(We couldnt take any pictures as proof because you arent allowed to when working with young kids.)

This workshop provided some information on mentors. Mr. Jorlui, the presenter had informed us that its not just about what you know , but who you know. A mentor is someone that gives guidance to another to those who need it. A mentor goes out of their way to help someone that needs it. It is not a good idea to cancel meetings with mentors, unless it is an emergency. A mentor has gone through everything the mentee hasn’t experience yet, so it is a necessary learning experience for the mentee. It is also known that companies who actively seek people to take specific positions are looking for responses. It’s better if the person replies to the company rather than the company seeking them out. I’ve also been informed about the Baruch career development center and the linkedin website. This workshop has been somewhat informative, I’ve gotten the message that its not just about what you know, but who you know.

So, I think I did a lot of things that fullfilled my community service requirement (although I’d do it either way).
First: I donated blood for that halloween blood drive. I do this every few months because it is great to know that from each donation, I can save three lives. Also, I just like the fact that I can wear that pretty purple or turquoise tape around my arm and say yeah, I donated blood today.
Second: I volunteer at a church and I help out the elderly with random things. Sometimes I help cook meals, sometimes I help clean, but all the time I bring joy and happiness.
Third: Shirley asked if anyone would like to volunteer with the BAP bakesale, and so I made a big batch of brownies for them to sell. I even wrapped each individually to keep germs away!
Well anyway, I like helping whenever I can.

This workshop was extremely helpful. I learned how to write my resumes, and they also gave out sample ones I can use as templates. Overall, it was good, despite how long it was. I even met someone new! *thumbs up*

This semester has been pretty routine. After the initial week or so getting used to the college format, things got boring. You hear about freshman 15. Try freshman 30. You think amazing frat parties and thursday nights out. Try two hour commutes, little to no friends, and 11 o’clock bedtimes. I wonder when college became to mundane. Maybe its time to add some variety. Maybe I should join that fraternity. Maybe I should stop heading straight home. The thing is, even if I tell myself to hang around, my significant other wishes otherwise.
“Be home soon!””When do you get back today? 6? Why so late?””Have lunch with me on Fridays. You don’t have class anyway.””Fine, go hang out with your friends. Just don’t bother me when I’m with mine. Oh, now you don’t want to? It’s either one or the other; you have to choose”
Why not both? Why not all? Why not???
They’re all the same problems since day one. I can’t bring myself to say no. I guess I’m just a bit afraid.
People say “Why did you choose to stay in NY for your boyfriend? That’s so stupid.” Maybe it is. Who knows? But now that I am here, I plan opn making the most out of it. So what if all my friends are male? So what?
When I say that I wish it were the end, it reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend. I just want to fast forward to graduation. I want to fast forward to whatever I want to be.

I forgot to register for any of the workshops so instead i am going to write about the workshop that we went to as a class.  If you recall the workshop was about sources and how some sources are not good. I thought the workshop was kind of pointless beause the instructor made a big deal how the news lies sometimes, I rememeber being told this in like third grade. I should hope no one takes what they see on the news as 100 percent true. sure some of it is true but a lot of times they edit clips so it reperesents there political points of views, and nearly all the time they leave out information. By now im sure we all know that both Fox and MSNBC are two of the biggest culprtis for distorting or leaving out valuable information. It’s pretty sad how the instrucor showed how 40 years ago you could actually trust the news but nowadays everything i hear i am skeptical of. I wish we lived in a world were we can actually trust people, todays society is all about making a buck even if that means telling lies as a journalists. Why cant we just go back to the way it use to be?

It is now towards the end of the semester. i didnt do much. to be honest there was a lot of feeling around at the beginning of the year, kinda like in fights where you dont really engage but try to figure out how strong your opponent is. the classes arent bad at all in terms of difficulty, but my rise in laziness has risen to new extremes.

i m scared. if i stay here at baruch for too long, i see myself just skipping class everyday. My motivation to work has plummeted to new depths. i guess when you grow up what institutions lack in inspiration you’re supposed to make up for through discipline and a need for money in the future.

i miss having PE class. i feel weary sometimes, i think its my lack of activity lately but maybe its the weather too. in Heroes the tv show i saw a bunch of japanese business men all go outside in the middle of the day to do some mandatory excersize. seems like both a nice and dreadful idea. idunno.

baruch has its charms, not many, but it has its charms. the building itself continues to amaze me (vc not 23rd cuz 23rd is shit). the people here are decent. classes are decent. professors are decent. a whole lot of mediocracy is what i m seeing but theres a lot of opportunities here too.

heres to hoping i can get out there and make next semester even better.

This workshop was about small talk. More precisely this was the second installment of the small talk workshops provided by STARR career center. Supposedly we were supposed to learn about how to start, sustain, and end small talk as well as the implications of such. Do keep in mind these sessions are free and non profit, i assume, so any bad mouthing i do must be taken lightly and somewhat jokingly.

The workshop went like this: we were seated in a circle, got a handout, went through the handout, did a small excersize, talked some more, the end. The whole thing was unbearably tense and boring for the most part. While i do appreciate that the workshop was free and of good intent it just really lacked any sort of polish or coherence.

The speaker seemed a good man but his demeanor left me with the impression that i did not want to learn anything from him. He sat in the corner of the room where not even half the people remaining could see him (many left throughout the workshop to go to class, i suspect some of them also had their pants spontaneously combust). What kind of speaker sits in the corner while slouched forward? It does not exactly inspire confidence and a feeling of comfortability.

The workshop’s contents lacked depth and insight, i felt the things i ‘learned’ actually weakened what small-talking skills i already had. I found the sections about physical communication nice but the tips like “repeat something interesting they said” or “tell them what they said was interesting” were horrible. It felt less like a small-talk workshop and more of a “how to pretend you are paying attention” workshop.

Perhaps it was my blunder in going to a social skills workshop and not something more concrete like resume writing. I appreciated the workshop but found it of little use and a poor usage of time. It was also brought to my attention that the speaker did not seem very enthusiastic or motivated, perhaps it was just my imagination. He seemed more obligated to keeps us in the room until time was up rather than actually teaching us something. when the session ended about 30 minutes early he insisted we stayed in the room despite us not doing anything productive and simply sitting there.

Bad experience, scarred, no more workshops, is all i can conclude.

So I went to this “Writing Winning Resume” workshop today. Man, did that help A LOT. The bitches there really know what they were talking about. At least as long as I was there.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to a practice that I had to go to. I tried to convince my coach to let me miss a little but she was like, “If you miss practice, you better be living on a prayer. Find someone’s hand, and you’ll make it I swear, woah-o. you’re living on a prayer.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant but I grabbed my roommate’s, Taylor, hand. He said, “WOAH-O. We’re living on a prayer.” And then he grabbed our other friend’s hand. “WOAH-O, we’re half way there,” Jack replied. We all walked together singing Bon Jovi.

Bitches love Bon Jovi.

All in all, this workshop really helped me a lot to know what I should and should not include in my resume. They gave me a number of sample resumes to base mine off of. It will be very useful as I get older.

So what do I think of Baruch college now? Well, I feel it’s just  ordinary. It has lived up to my expectations, but the dull classrooms, escalators, and not to mention elevator doors with only one side opening  are pretty disappointing. Other than these”minor” dissapointments, its just fine. I have one last complaint on the fact that some of the people are very immature or just plain idiots(specifically my Calculus class, it is very painful to sit through), but thats a different matter, not much to do with college I suppose. My college experience is okay, but I probably could have been more active. I’m not a very social person, I feel I could improve on that a bit more. If I could redo my first semester, I’d try to turn ALL of my grades into As. In fact, college has changed me to care more about my grades, I didn’t really care before to be honest. From next semester on, I will dedicate my  time to improve on my grades and make up for my mediocre performance from this one. Later on, i may become more active in the college community. This will probably improve my experience here in the future,. However its only a thought, no guarantee I suppose. I don’t think I have had a dramatic change during this semester, it’s probably still too early to tell. I am very close to deciding on a major, so I’ve planned ahead. In time, I believe college will help me get rid of procrastination. I hope the experience gets better as time goes on.