Subject: Homework FRO12 BTA.
Dear Professor,
I was trying to do the homework you assigned us yesterday in class but I got stuck on one of the questions. I am not sure what exactly you are looking for in the answer. Maybe I can speak to you after class or we can meet during your office hours.
Thank You for all your help!
Shlomo Torkieh FRO12 BTA. Tuesday 9:30
Subject: FRO12 BTA Midterm
Hi Professor Ellingwood,
Unfortunately, I have missed the midterm due to a severe illness. I was wondering if there was any possibility of a makeup exam, or an additional assignment I can do instead. Please let me know. Thanks!
Julie Soffer, FRO12 BTA, Tues 9:30
Hello Class,
As discussed today in class, the assignment due on Tuesday the 13th:
Please review this link http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2005/01/how-to-e-mail-professor.html on how to send a proper email to your professor.
Post a pseudo email on the blog including a subject line, to either Jen or I addressing one of the three sketches below
1. You have difficulty figuring out a specific homework exercise
2. You received a semester grade of B- in one of your classes but based on your own records you think you earned an A.
3. You missed the midterm exam due to an illness.
Well, I had to listen to a lot of songs to decide which is my personal favorite and my “theme song”. However, as I describe my personality (my opinion at least) as an easygoing, carefree, harmless, and tolerable person; the song Imagine by John Lennon perfectly fits my criteria and really gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. It’s not just the beautiful melody of the piano and Lennon’s voice singing it, it’s the lyrics that he projects upon the audience, and the message that he’s trying to send. If the world today had those attributes or characteristics as Lennon portrays, there really wouldn’t be any wars or struggle. There would be only peace and unity amongst all the people. Some of you may have not heard the song but I strongly recommend you do listen to it because the song basically also shows you the reason why the world is in this state. And is the solution to all problems in society such as the greed that most people have. But I guess that’s why the song is called “Imagine” and therefore the world would never be perfect and peaceful like that. It wouldn’t because every single human being has their greed in them, or so called human nature. Because of people stepping over each other for their own interest and possessions the world became like this. Greedy people making massive amounts of money still craving power and still sending others to die for their interests in their wars. This has happened over the course of history and, sadly, it will always continue this way until humans reside this beautiful planet we have… I guess this little monologue won’t change anything so i would gladly end this peacefully, but at least I could say that I’m a dreamer, but not the only one.
here’s the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU
picture that basically represents me (since I didn’t have space to upload my own picture…)
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/29700000/everyone-together-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-29790647-813-606.jpg
yes i love ponies
Mike Villone’s Monologue:
My aunt Marly and I had a great relationship. I always remember going to her house, and she would always be in the kitchen preparing some amazing home cooked meal. She was a real people-pleaser. She also really enjoyed life, and loved sipping a cold beer while eating a juicy steak and puffing on a cigarette. Atleast, that’s what I remember her doing the last time I saw her when the whole family went on vacation back in 2004. My whole family on my mother’s side lives in Brazil, and so I don’t get to see them too often. Anyway, back in 2007 my aunt was diagnosed with Lymphoma, which is a type of Cancer. I’m guessing it was from all the smoking. But she was a fighter, and no matter how much the Chemo or Radiation affected her, she would still take care of the house and her kids. April of 2008 however, things took a turn for the worse. She hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days and was contemplating checking into the hospital. Luckily, my mother called her on a Tuesday right before she left for the hospital, and my mother wanted me to play her a piece that I had just performed at Carnegie Hall a few months back called the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. I remember playing that piece for her with no mistakes which is really rare coming from me, and I felt kind of proud of myself. The following Saturday night was the first night of Passover, and my mother was preparing for the Seder (dinner) that was about to take place. We invited friends to come celebrate with us, and I remember my mother’s amazing matzoh ball soup cooking in the pot. Later that night, we were just about to eat when my mother received a call that her sister had just passed away. It was indeed a very shocking and surreal moment. However, when I looked back to that previous Tuesday, I realized that the Moonlight Sonata piece I played was one of the very last, if not, the last piece of music my aunt ever heard. Therefore, I felt very honored that I was able to do this gesture for her, and it will be a moment in my life that I will always carry with me.
Thank You 🙂
Given how difficult it can be to encapsulate any kind of reality in a concise statement and how rarely generalities are relevant in one’s life, I don’t usually look to gain or try to impart any pieces of advice . Most don’t deeply understand others lives and I understand my own even less than them. Despite this, I’ve heard my share of truisms and its fortunate that I have because one that I heard recently gave me perspective on the direction I would like my life to be heading towards.
Becoming an adult and having to go to work every day really, really terrifies me. (I’m legally already an adult I guess, but whatever). I’m not the hardest worker in the world to begin with, so spending years on a career seemed like torture. Something that I heard often and seemed relevant was “Do what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”, but I had no idea how to implement it in my life. For the most part I love watching movies and sleeping during the daytime, I would think to myself, but there’s not a large market for that skill set. The few jobs that I had stressed me out and didn’t ignite the kind of interest needed to commit to anything. I couldn’t figure out what I loved to do, so it seemed like I would be working a lot of days in my life.
The piece of advice that I heard and would like to share is complementary to the one mentioned earlier and a solution to my problem. “Find something you are good at and others see as difficult,” was the secret to success for David Politzer, a Nobel laureate who was visiting my high school. This probably isn’t earth shattering for most people, but for somebody who has failed in multiple jobs/internships it was very liberating. What I had failed at would never be natural to me and its okay for me to move on to new things. What is, is natural and one day I’ll find what I’m good at and never have to work a day in my life.
College. More than anything, during my senior year at high school, the word college was synonymous to freedom; synonymous to parties every night and synonymous to finally growing up. Whenever I thought “college”, I thought grassy fields and red plastic cups, hangovers in calc lectures and watching the sun rise from behind a stack of textbooks in the library. So I guess when I decided that I would be coming to Baruch, a commuter school, it was hard not to be disappointed. Dorming was definitely not an option, when my house was just a one hour commute away. I felt like I was getting cheated out of the whole “college experience”. The first time I saw the VC, I immediately thought, “Welcome to High School 2.0”. Everything was familiar. The layout of the building to the way the elevators only stopped on 2,5,8 and 11. It was extremely easy to pick up but at the same time extremely mundane.
But my ideal vision of college wasn’t completely shattered. Even though I compare Baruch to high school, it’s actually way more lenient. With basically half the number of classes that I was taking in high school and only select classes every other day, I have so much more time to do whatever I want. Maybe it’s because I became 18 so now my parents aren’t as stubborn as they were before about late night outs. Maybe, it’s because I got a job tutoring students at a prep place by my house so for once I felt like I was taking responsibility into my own hands. Maybe, it’s because I buy 30-day unlimited MetroCard’s so I can with my friends wherever and whenever I want to. I always thought that these privileges just came bundled up with your tuition fees, dorming fees, and meal plans but I realize that it’s up to you to take these responsibilities. At a commuter school, you have the option to treat college like high school. It’s the same college but a whole different experience. It’s just like playing a game through “easy mode”. So in the end, the decision is up to the students themselves. So when I thought “do I want to be the same person that I was at 15 when I’m 21?”, the answer was pretty obvious. No thanks.
So, its been two months since I started college and everyone has been asking me: How’s college? My usual response is just: good or ok. But the honest answer is that I haven’t really thought much about it. Let me do that now.
The first thing I will look at is my academic progress. I think I’m doing pretty well in all of my classes. I aced two midterms and in my other classes I believe I’m doing fairly well because there is no midterm in those classes. But while I am doing well in most of my classes I had to drop my calculus class. When I first started to realize that I was not doing well in this class I really began to worry. In high school I never really had this problem with my classes. This was the first time where I had to worry about the consequences of failing a class. I had two options. My first option was to try my hardest to pass the class, but I knew that I wanted to pass with a good grade and not with a D. My second option was to drop the class and hope to take the class in the future. When I first started college I never imagined I would need to drop a class and this reality scared me. So I tried to pass the class as best I could. As the semester progressed I started to talk to many people. But I mainly talked to current and past students about my dilemma. Almost everyone told me that dropping the class would not be the end of the world. As long as I did better in the future, I was good. So that news really kept my college experience positive.
I guess the second thing to look at is my life at Baruch. And I have to say this part is really good. I’ve made a lot of friends at Baruch and I think that is really what you need for an enjoyable college experience. I already knew many people when coming into Baruch, both new and current students and that just made everything so much easier. They guided me when I had questions and they are always there for me when I need them. Friends in college are just an essential part in an enjoyable experience. They are there when you’re bored and there when you’re worried.. Going through college with friends is really the only way people should experience college.
If I had to answer the question: How’s college so far? I can honestly say that it’s pretty good. I can’t deny that it hasn’t been perfect and I haven’t had worries, but I can say that life is good in college.
My picture is of Oreos, because they make everything better.
So you’re asking how I’m doing? Wow. Everything’s just wow-worthy and so overwhelming. You know. Coming from the Philippines to ‘the’ New York. That’s got to be something, right? There’s got to be something. I just feel like I’m basically back to zero. It’s weird to think that I walked through 4 years of High School and made tons of friends and connections just for me to leave behind eventually for college. Isn’t that sad? I know it is. I guess I’m just not used to not knowing everyone around me and not have someone in an instant whenever I wanna go out. I guess it’s just really tough to start anew… alone.
Well, Baruch is cool. Except those revolving doors and elevators. Everything’s okay I guess. I just feel like being a freshman sucks bigtime. You know. I hate pretending that I know everything when I honestly know nothing. I hate acting matured when all I wanna do is sing out loud and maybe dance a little bit. I hate awkward eye-to-eye contacts with awkward people. I hate that I always forget the fact that you have to use the first floor elevator in the library to get to the 6th and up. I mean, the list goes on and on and you probably don’t wanna hear them all out. Don’t worry ’cause I know in the end, everything will be better anyway.
That’s a thing. You have to be optimistic or else one day you’ll find yourself in a dumpster crying. Yup, that’s just an exageration. I mean, everything’s just a state of mind. The more you think positive, the more positive favors you. I know it’s not easy but it’s totally worth a try. Actually, I wanna major in Optimism if such thing exists. You know I’m kidding right? Because I wanna be… I don’t know. I don’t know yet. All I know is that I wanna be someone someday somehow. That simple.
I don’t know where I’m heading at with this letter but I wanna be the person to tell you that there would be a lot of times in your life when you’d be overwhelemed. Don’t fret because that’s just how life works. That’s just how it should be. “Be yourself” for me is a very overrated advice. I think that you better know how to be not yourself especially during overwhelming times because who knows who you really are? You don’t even know who you really are, do you? Those times might push you to do things undone and step towards a different direction but have faith because those overwhelming times get you to know yourself better, if not your entire self. Life goes on as they say but don’t be afraid to stop it for a second and fail. You will, in the end, reach your dreams maybe through life-threatening revolving doors, broken escalators, packed elevators, and rude guards, but I’m sure you’ll get there. Because I know I will. Oh, I love New York. Everything’s just wow-worthy. I don’t know why they call it Big Apple though. Because for me it’s a Big Watermelon. You know I love Watermelon right?
Before I end this and be like “regards to everybody out there because I care”, I wanna share a quote from a movie I’ve seen recently. It says, “You can’t choose where you come from but you can choose where you go from there.” Goosebumps. That’s just my life. Satrapi-ish. So yes, have fun. Be overwhelmed. Think positive. Don’t be afraid to be a wallflower. And stay disorganized… like this letter. Till next time!
Back to zero,
CJ <-Here’s a picture! 🙂
This is it. It’s my turn to go. I can’t believe I’m actually about to do this. This should be good.
With my billabong shorts on and the incredibly cute captain helping me secure my lifejacket, I slip my feet into the slippers on the board, skadoodle my way out onto the back of the boat and hop on into the water. I front stroke my way onto the side of the boat where a huge black bar is attached. The captain (and also the instructor) tells me to grab the bar and lift myself up. I knew I should’ve joined a gym earlier dammit. After a few tries, I get myself up there. He tells me to squat, lift the board (with my feet attached) so that it levels up with about the lower half of my stomach or so, and as the boat begins to move, slowly shift the lower half of my body to the right with the board sort of pointing up.
“Think you can do it?” -Captain
“Yeah! No problem”-Me (as I’m trying to go over the steps in my head thinking this is about to be an epic fail)
The boat begins to move. My best friend who had occumpanied me on this trip, Brigette, yells out: “You got this! Don’t worry!”
Yeah, right.
Within the first five seconds nonetheless, I manage to shift but the force of the water and my inaccuracy fails. I let go of the bar and reside floating in the water. The boat turns around and yet again, I have to push myself up to grab hold of the bar. Understand that when your feet are attached to a wakeboard as well, it is not so easy pushing oneself up when they can’t move their feet. We try again. Fail. Again. Fail. Again. Fail. Again. Fail but unfortunately this time I sort of wadded off and swallowed a lot of lake water. The boat comes back around. Super annoyed at myself, I grab hold of the bar as the captain comes over to the side and tells me I’m not balanced enough, that because I’m a rightie, when I shift the board, I need to put 60% on the back (my right foot) and 40% on the front (my left foot) to keep balance. I look at him and actually try calculating how much 60% I actually put into my foot, not grasping the idea that all he was trying to say was put more pressure on the right, back foot than on the left, front foot. Simple concept but of course I made it difficult. We try again. And wouldn’t you believe it!….I failed. I grab hold of the bar and as I am putting myself into position, I hear my dad screaming, “Cmon Erica. Listen to the man. Cmon you can do it. Stand up already!” P.oed as anything else that this wasn’t working and knowing this was my last try before the hour was up, I was determined to make this work.
The boat began to go. Slowly, I shifted my body and wouldn’t you know it? I managed to balance it out and ride. Holy moly! I was literally wakeboarding. As the captain cranked the speed just a bit, I remember the light of the sun sort of beaming on the side of the boat as he turned as if even God was proud of me. This was amazing.
Wakeboarding, for me, was one of my greatest accomplishments because I managed to go outside of my safety net and try something new. Life, I realized, has so much to offer and so many great experiences that few really take the chance to do. This was one of the reasons I am who I am today. I learned to take a risk and ask questions later. Do something and make memories and importantly, have fun while doing it.
<—Wahoo!