LC09

I don’t seem to understand how presenting the monologue should have changed my perspective on things and personally  for me nothing has changed. Maybe opening up to a group of people would get some sort of load off my chest, but I didn’t really open up, so that might be the issue.

It takes time for a person to develop,  a few months time of an orientation class will not change a person or their attitude towards school. What Freshman Seminar did help me with was point me in the right direction, and introduced me to Baruch. The information I received was to the point and exactly what I was expecting out of a course such as this and I think that it was this fact that gave this course value. Helping me grow as an individual was a big fail, but making sure that I know when and how to register for classes saved me some time and I am thankful for that.

Thank You,

Roman Kostner

To be frank, I did not expect my monologue to be that good. I did not know what I was supposed to type and even though everyone said to use our free-writings, I hardly incorporated anything from those three-sentence-long paragraphs. It took me at a minimum of thirty minutes to type out the first paragraph because I did not know what to write. After that, about twenty minutes was used to type the next paragraph and so forth (that includes a bit of procrastination).

Since I did not know what to write, I decided to focus on social expectations and the usual teenage troubles, which is generally parents either expecting a lot from their children or almost completely carefree of them. At first, I thought about writing something that I do not like about that, but I decided against it since it would ruin the atmosphere of the paper. In the end, the monologue became a whole page long. Even then I was afraid it would not meet the minute-long requirement.

I suppose I can say the monologue is above average at the least because personally it sounded like a rant rather than anything.

Since I am better at randomness, here is a random painting I did in high school:

When I wrote my monologue the first time, it was pretty weak. After some revision, I was feeling a lot better about what I was going to say. But I still knew how hard it was going to be for me to present. I have never been good at public speaking, particularly not with presentations. When I wing it, things go a lot better. Nevertheless, it’s difficult.

That said, I got up there and I did it. Not only did I present, but somehow in some magical bizarre world, my monologue actually got voted for next year’s Voices. I realize it was a fluke because Dmitriy’s awesome chicken nuggets thing didn’t get through, but it still felt nice.

The best part about the presentation was what it meant. This class and that presentation in particular made me realize that in spite of the mile-long amount of issues I have, I still get things done. Relative to others, I get very little done. I know that. But I shouldn’t care because when I realistically look at my life, I realize that I am actually very proud of how far I’ve gotten… even if I am years behind and have very far to go. Every mistake made is a lesson learned and everything accomplished is a reason to feel hopeful.

To conclude, here is a picture of my cat and I:

I feel much better that my monologue is done and over with. Before, I stressed myself out because I had no idea what to write about, but now that it’s done, I feel relieved. I’ve always felt open and comfortable talking about myself, so I don’t feel any major changes in that department, but I liked that I could open up to LC09; you guys are cool (: Thanks to freshman seminar, I’ve met a lot of new friends. The people in LC09 are amazing and I’m glad to be a part of it. Also, I realized that how much some people lime McDonalds chicken nuggets !

I believe my monologue was good. I don’t think that I left anything out about myself. I included details about myself such as my fears, what I like, and my mottoes which I live my life by. I made my monologue light-hearted because I wanted people to feel good while they were listening to me. I enjoy the freshman seminar much more than i would’ve expected. It has really made me closer with my classmates and peers and have really made life at Baruch much more enjoyable to say the least. I don’t see LC 09 as being just a learning community anymore… I see it as a family.

Marky mark and the funky bunch, get at me

i believe that i did pretty well on my monologue even though i did not expect to. The monologues helped me learn more about myself as well as the other members in our LC 09. Since freshman seminar started i remember not knowing anyone and probably would have never shared anything about my self but as time progressed i met some really cool people and was able to share my monologue as well as respect them when they did theirs. I felt a lot more comfortable about talking about myself in front of people which i usually wouldn’t do regularly. Throughout the freshman seminar classes i think i got alot closer with almost all of the people in our LC and hope to keep it that way.

I was pretty happy with how my monologue came out. It showed people the real me and who is important in my life. I think that there were some more things that I could of included such as my hobbies and what I enjoy. I could of also been a little more personal, but I’m not the type of person who likes involving others in my problems. But, I mentioned my fears in life and what I value most, which other people may have not known before. Maybe if I had some more time, I could have made it longer and more detailed. But, I feel that what I had represented the most important things about myself.

I enjoyed all of the other monologues that were presented. I saw a side of people that I never saw before and I was able to connect with a lot of my classmates. All of them were very good whether they were serious, funny, or spoke about chicken nuggets. I really enjoyed doing this assignment and loved hearing everyone’s monologues.

I developed in freshman seminar in many ways. For example, I became friends with people that I never thought I would and realized how great all the kids are. Also, I opened up about my personal life with people and told them my fears. One major change is that freshman seminar opened my eyes to how fun volunteering could actually be, especially if you do it with the right crowd.

Post monologue i felt like a weight has been lifted off me. I have always been the type of person to suppress my feelings and to have the opportunity to be able to share what i felt and who i am with LC09 it felt great. Being so insecure during my early teenage years has affected me in so many ways, but mostly in a positive way surprisingly. And being able to share something so personal like that with the group made me feel like i could trust these people, i had faith in them and that made me so happy.  I liked being able to open up to them and show them what kind of person i truly am, because the best relationships are built when you show someone your true colors and you present yourself as your natural born self.

In freshman seminar I have grown and learned a lot about myself. When asked those personal questions during the free writes, it made me think a lot about things that i never really think about. I have experienced a lot of self-realization in this class and it has helped me attempt to stay true to myself. Freshman seminar not only helped me realize who i am however, it has also helped me realize what wonderful people LC09 has to offer.

I. I still see myself as the same person after the monologue. It was weird talking about myself in front of an audience and being personal, but it was a good experience. I enjoyed listening to the others hearing what they had to say

II. I think I’ve developed nicely in freshman seminar. I guess I know the people who are in the class better, and they know more about me. It’s a nice class to go to.

Me

I thought my monologue  was just average, nothing special. I don’t know but when it comes to myself I don’t like pouring all my feelings, cause I feel like people don’t want to hear your every insecurity every emotion that you feel. And its not fair for you to dump that on someone or at least that’s how I feel. I guess the way this relates to how my monologue is that it didn’t  go in depth because I guess I’m not use to doing it. I guess I could learn how to open up a little bit, and maybe it would’ve been better. I definitely been told before there can be more of a discussion  when there’s more to go by. Maybe if I had more time I could’ve made it better. External factors force me to do this as quick as possible, so care was an element I could’ve focused on a little bit. When it came to other people’s monologues the ones that were better had more creativity and more of a personal connection with their audience. I think the ones we picked for our class where really good choices because they actually took the time to invest themselves in what they wrote.