DTE: Surviving College 101

I’m a volunteer firefighter for the edgewater park volunteer firehouse in The Bronx. It is the only remaining firehouse in the Bronx. For my community service I didn’t have to go anywhere since I am already apart of this organization so instead I’ll just tell you about what i do and what its like being a volunteer firefighter. I joined the firehouse last year with a couple of my friends. It’s a fun place to hang out in on the weekends but there is also responsibility that comes with being apart of it. There are two meetings every month and a drill once a week, whenever the fire horn rings every member runs up to the firehouse and then deals with the problem wheter it is someone needing oxygen, a gas leak or in the worst case a fire. You may wonder how does everyone go up once a horn rings, but where i live the community is pretty small and close so it takes less than a minute to go up there. Since joining the firehouse i have learned many lifesaving skills and more importantly it helps out the community and creates a closer community where there is trust .I am proud of my community and that is something to say when your living in The Bronx and i wished other communites could be like mine so the borough could become a better and safer place.

My first semester at Baruch is only a little bit more than a week away and man am i happy. College is pretty much what i expected it to bee, a lot of writing and reading assignments. I think i did pretty good this semester because i have been able to keep up with these assignments thanks in part to when i am at work lifeguarding all what i do is read anyway. Baruch has been what i thought it was going to be, school. It’s not to exciting  (althugh the protests were) and i really dont have time to get involved into any clubs since i work so much. But i kind of like it like that, it keeps me more focused on the reason im in college, to learn and get a degree as oppose to when im home having fun and being with my friends. I just cannot wait to have a month off to relax and worry only about work as oppose to school and work. I wouldn’t go back and change anything i did this semester because i think i did a good job and i have no regrets. I think this semester has changed me for the better. i have become a more responsible and independent person. I look foward to my month off and taking classes that i actually want next semester.

My bad its late i was going to do it last night but I spend the whole night watching a Herman Cain BLR soundbite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5xZKszXMQ which is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. But anyway I’ve got somethings to cover before I start babbling on about random shit. Ight so the first question how has my experience at baruch lived up to my expectations blabbity blabbity blah blah blah? Well first off I knew exactly what to expect coming into baruch because this isn’t the first time I’ve been in college. I should be a transfer student but I didn’t know if my previous college grades would get me into a decent cuny and when I tried applying as a transfer I only had four choices instead of 6 and even if I had good enough grades to get into any of the 4 I didn’t have a choice the cuny system would choose for me, which is some bullshit. Right about now is the time when I would be saying pardon my language but fuck that you’re all old enough to know how to spell a curse and even if some kid did read this who’s to say he doesn’t already curse. I have a cousin in 3rd grade and he’s been cursing for at least a year which is some shit. But what are you going to do we live in an age when the best way to describe something so that everyone will understand is to curse. But I digress, one question done three to go. I messed up my first semester here. I didn’t get the textbook I needed right away so right off the bat I was behind and I didn’t start taking the one class I had seriously until I failed a test. So that’s awesome. Boom 2 questions done. The third can easily be assumed but I need to take up space anyway. So if I could do it again I would get the book and study my ass off from the beginning so I wouldn’t have to pay a tutor to help me out. But in my defense my teacher is some sort of Eastern European and I am shit with accents. I just can’t understand them. Plus I fall asleep in class. Ight 3 done one to go. How have I changed well I smoke marijuana much less often since I’ve started going here which is perfect because that is really what I wanted to do. Now not only can I focus more but I get like twice as high when I do smoke which is a win-win. Alright now that I answered all the questions, filled up as much space as I need, I can start babbling and ranting about shit. I was originally going to do a video blog it was going to be me talking over me playing the game Castle Crashers which is made by the people who made Alien Hominid which if anyone went on new grounds awhile back would agree that it is one of the best flash games ever created. Alright I’m over 500 words so I’m going to stop but before I do I would like anyone who reads this to please go to http://americancensorship.org/ and please join the cause because if this bill gets pass we will lose many freedoms we hold dear and we won’t be able to download anything off the internet and idk about you but I can’t afford all the music I like to listen to. Ight peace bitches

I’d always wanted to volunteer for a soup kitchen, so when I realized I had mandatory community service to fulfill, I began my search for a reputable organization. I ended up trekking up to 28^th and 9^th to Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen one Friday morning, not really knowing what to expect. In the end, my anxiety was unnecessary. As soon as I walked in the door, someone passing by greeted me and pointed me towards the sign-up table. There, one of the administrative staff welcomed me and helped me fill out their forms, and showed me where to store my jacket and bag. He pointed me towards the breakfast stand, where volunteers were milling about, making tea and swiping bagels. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down by myself at the emptiest table I could find, being my shy self. However, soon after, a couple of people sat down next to me, introducing themselves and talking freely. Their friendliness encouraged me to get to know them, though most of them were middle-aged or elderly. I got to talk to people who lived very differently from the way I was brought up, which I enjoyed. I was assigned to serving vegetables, and there were people guiding me the whole time I volunteered.

At the food line, I was among 8 different people preparing trays of food. I had to scoop a portion of already-cooked vegetables onto each tray and pass it along to the person next in line. I had a chance to talk to the other volunteers, who were veterans at Holy Apostle. Everyone was open to meeting new people. My arms got sore from scooping so many trays, but the whole operation really was a community effort. The most memorable part was meeting John, one of the people we served. The people we served ate in a separate part of the church floor, but after lunch was over, John introduced himself to me. I’m normally very apprehensive about talking to male strangers (haha…), but the atmosphere Holy Apostle fostered encouraged me to let go of that. I found out that he attended a church I’d heard a lot of good things about, and it was nice to enjoy his company in the 15 minutes we spent talking. I really enjoyed volunteering at Holy Apostle and the other volunteers invited me to return. I think I will.

Coming into Baruch on orientation day, I figured I would enjoy college about as much as I did high school—which is to say a vague appreciation of the institution as a whole, with less-than-enjoyable day-to-day operations. After a semester at Baruch, I would say that it has surpassed my expectations, but not by much. I love the freedom; that my free time does not revolve around school, but rather, classes. As lame as it is, I love the library and its many resources. My Philosophy teacher remarked today that she would feel less responsible if we had not turned in our papers or done our reading than she would have had she been teaching high school, and I love that I am in control of how well I do, and that in the end, it doesn’t affect anyone but myself.

I don’t love spending hours at a time waiting for my next class, but I don’t hate it either. I don’t love having so much time to myself. I hate spending money in the city. I like that my classes are straightforward, but I don’t like that I lose steam and begin to slack off halfway through. But overall, I did better than I expected to. At last, I broke the curse of losing motivation during the fall semester that seemed to haunt all four years of my high school experience. If I could go back, though, I would build up more resolve to do more than just get by in my classes. I would have involved myself in more activities, but there isn’t much I feel like I can’t capitalize on during the spring semester.

I think I changed a lot for the better since I started Baruch, but I compromised who I was a lot more than I wish I did. I focused a lot more on doing well and improving my behavior, but I kept quiet when I should have spoken up for the things I believed in; I wish I’d made a bigger impact on the people I’m surrounded by. I look forward to taking on more responsibility in the coming years, and excelling in whatever I invest myself into.

My first semester at Baruch College is about to end. I felt as if I haven’t changed much though. I still seem childish, and most of all I don’t seem 18 at all. I still like procrastinating, though I end up regretting it a lot later on. But after saying that, I would always get things done on time. I put my likes over the things I need to get done. I still enjoy playing online games, which my parents would often laugh at me about…They would always say that now I am 18 years old, I should act my age and stop playing these “little kid games.” Of course I would not reply to them, and I still play them. 🙂

This college has pretty much lived up to my expectations. There is a high diversity in the college, and I met some great friends. My schedule of course could have been better, but my college friends had already warned me of the schedules during freshman year. The thing that worried me the most was having three essays due on the same week. I would always tell myself that I should do my essays when I get them and get them over with, which never happens.

If I could do things differently during my first semester, I would actually study for that political science test. It may not be my favorite subject, but I should still study for it. I would have liked to have chosen another subject for my English class’ final paper, since writing about the recession is pretty boring. I would have liked to have gone to the high school homecoming with my friends, since we all ended up having things to do. I had class, and my friends were busy. Another thing that would have been nice would be having the same days off as my friends from high school. We always wanted to go out one of these days, but we were never able to find a day to go out together. We don’t want to go out on weekends because we are lazy and we want to rest on the days off.

This semester was a relatively pretty good one. I hope next year would be as well. Also I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Years.

I look everything up on Yelp. Looking for a hair salon near Flushing? I can refer you to Sub-Image for a $40 haircut, or BeBe Beauty Salon for 15. Keen on finding the most stylish of thrift stores? AuH2O in East Village sounds like a safe bet, with a rating of 4.5/5 and over 30 reviews. There are even a whopping total of six reviews of the high school I went to. And of course, what would a Yelp search be if it didn’t include food? Chinese hole-in-the-walls, Indian buffet bars, sandwich shops, dollar pizza—whatever restaurant you’re looking for, Yelp can help you find the perfect fit.

But when it came to that mandatory workshop we had to attend for Freshman Seminar, I was left to my own devices with a myriad of choices in front of me and not a clue as to where to begin. I ended up diving in headfirst with no expectations. As I scanned the STARR Career Development website, I realized that all the other workshops—how to ace an interview (or even just to land one, for that matter), job search tips, and even dining etiquette—would never be useful to me if I didn’t have a good resume. Despite the tacky title, I decided that I might as well sign up for Writing Winning Resumes.

The workshop itself was located in a conference room on the second floor, which I’d never been to. After checking in, I began looking through the packet they gave us to accompany the lecture. The speaker was very helpful and walked us through the packet, which presented detailed guides on formatting our resume, what information to include, how to sell our experience and skills in a couple of bullet points, and writing cover letters. We took part in a group exercise that allowed us to make judgment calls on example resumes as if we were the employer. It was refreshing to look at resumewriting from a different perspective, and I found it helpful in critiquing my own resume in the future. Though I did not have my own resume prepared, it is not necessary to bring one, as the workshop is catered towards those who are looking at the basics of resume writing.

Overall, Writing Winning Resumes is informative to those who have no idea where to begin, but for those who have a barebones-idea of resume writing, the workshop gives specific pointers on how to improve their own. Although it was frustrating to follow the powerpoint, as it included a lot of information not found in the packet, I would recommend this workshop to anyone who feels they need to brush up on their resume writing skills.

The first semester in Baruch College is over and I’m finally done with all the papers for the semester. At the beginning, I hoped that I could say “I’ve done my best in the first semester”; however, the laziness has kept me from doing my best. I wonder when I can overcome this weakness. I always wait the last minute to finish the works and couldn’t change even though I want to. The one thing that I want to improve is my laziness. The most obvious change that I have after this semester is that I use English more. During High School, most of my friends speak Chinese but I have more friends that couldn’t speak Chinese right now. Nonetheless, Baruch College is pretty good overall. Before I enrolled in this college, I underestimated the college because it’s a Cuny and all my friends who attend another college tried to persuade me to transfer. I was hesitated at the beginning but I want to stay at Baruch College right now. The college doesn’t really matter if you are doing what you suppose to do. Anyway, my first semester is not what I expected. I still considered college as same as High School, so I maintained the routine that I had in H.S. Yet, things have turned out not very well. My test grades were not bad; most of them were above 90s, but my class participations were terrible. I still haven’t used to speak up in front of people. I don’t know how my average is going to be for this semester, but hopefully it’s at least 3.5.

The first semester is almost over, and it was exhausting. Too many quizzes from history and too many essays for English. Not to mention that ethics made me sleepy. Music is just plain stupid and a waste of my time and anthropology has way to many complicated words. Have I learned anything? Well I guess I learned a bunch of complicated words from anthropology and that ethics is only fun when you debate over issues and not when you discuss what “important” philosophers have to say about a certain issue. Apart from not enjoying classes I haven’t accomplished much this first semester. I haven’t joined any clubs and I haven’t been using my breaks effectively. Just as I have stated before in the last blog all I have been doing is playing foosball, table tennis, and occasionally some handball. Due to my laziness in the first semester I have promised myself to join a club next semester and to use my break time for more effective things like studying. The only thing I gained from this first semester is that I have improved my foosball skills greatly. So I invite anyone to come to the game room and play me during your free time, and make sure your prepared to lose =). Although the first semester may be over, there is still a long road ahead, so it is best to head on to the future prepared.

Its that time of the year again where young children get all excited over the presents to come, and blizzards dump 2 feet of snow in the streets and make commuting a living hell. Also, its just about time when my first semester at baruch is about to end. Overall, it was a good experience, and one that was satisfying, if a bit hectic. Im pretty sure i did decent in all of my classes, although since the grading system is very different from high school, i guess i wont know for sure until i see them posted. The college experience is good, and i think i finally got used to it. The workload was a bit challenging at first, and sometimes it would seem as if i spent as much time remembering what i had to do as actually DOING it. But, thats over now, and looking back, there isnt anything that i would really change. The only thing that bothers me is the registration process for next semester. I was lucky in the fact that i got to register earlier than most freshman, and was able to pick a schedule that suited me well. I know some people had difficulties in finding open classes, and were nearly forced into becoming part time students. I feel that the college should pay more attention to freshman’s needs, and make sure this doesnt happen in the future. One thing that made the transition difficult at first was the fact that nobody seemed to care if you somehow messud up your schedule or grades. I guess the school advisors cant really watch over the thousands of students, but a bit mroe guidance for freshman would come in handy. Anyway, now that everyone has gotten their schedules in, we are starting to realize that all of us have different classes. Just as you make new freinds and get used to a routine, it gets shuffled around all over again and you find yourself struggling to get your bearings. Oh well, thats college for you, and we are all adults now, so i guess ill just have to deal with it. Thats basically all i have to say. Happy holidays, and good luck to everyone.