Upon seeing the decrepit condition of the arm rests of the chairs in the eighth floor lounge area (I love that lounge area — there need to be more in existence throughout the VC) I was immediately reminded of one reason I despised my high school’s atmosphere: the meaningless crap that was etched into desks and written on bathroom stalls with magic marker. “Love is a drug”, “Baby don’t hurt me” and “So-and-so slept with so-and-so” were among my favorite statements that I read through my four years. Such soul. Such depth.

I absolutely adore good quality vandalism. I love it. I appreciate artwork and I appreciate anonymity and I appreciate tags. There are probably moral hypocrisies going on in this paragraph right now, but it’s true. I looked down closer at one armrest in particular and I see the words “Think While You Still Can” engraved in the wood. Next to the phrase, “VIBRATO” is etched, and below that, “XPLICIT” looks like an etch that had been there for a long time. How many people have sat in this chair, I thought. How many people have looked at the words and thought nothing of it, or thought something of it and decided to take a sly iPhone picture of it, because they can? Why vibrato? Musicians exist at Baruch? Of course they do. Philosophers exist at Baruch? Hm…

“Think while you still can?” Did this person feel stifled? Did this person feel trapped? Whatever the reason was for writing this, I take it as a statement from someone who did not necessarily want to be at Baruch. Then WHY are you here? I could go on. I will not.

This photo sums up many of the thoughts I have had at school this past semester, from the end of August until this moment in time. A GREAT handful of people, for the most part classmates from high school and the occasional belligerent “rando” at a party, have spit words at me for the past few months — “College is a waste of time.”

These words, this school of thought, this concept has eluded me. It eludes me – present tense. It did elude me – past tense. It will elude me – future tense. College is a waste of time? I assure you, it is not. At least, I don’t think it is. I am on my way to receiving a degree in about three years, and I cannot wait. One goes to college to gain knowledge of concepts that I could not gain otherwise. I have not had the opportunity or the privilege of studying abroad or living abroad or even leaving the country yet, so this is the closest I have come in my eighteen years to seeing SO many different walks of life at once. I love it here, and I love New York City. I need to surround myself with the people who I have been surrounding myself with. I need to keep on doing this.

VIBRATO.

I really, really enjoyed Voices in the very beginning of the semester. There is actually one girl who graduated from my high school on Long Island who attends Baruch, whom I only know through mutual friends, and a snippet of her’s was presented. It was so comforting to hear her name spoken up on that stage by the actors who were so passionate about the monologues being expelled… I loved it. I do not know the girl personally, however, I always knew her to run with a crowd that I didn’t particularly associate myself with. She is currently studying international business and she is a perfect example of a girl who rose out of a group of seemingly unmotivated kids who didn’t do a whole lot in high school, but is making a huge difference in bettering her life. It was so inspiring to hear her name up there on the stage back in September. September feels like years ago. It shouldn’t, but it does. I am not a fan of theater, so when I knew that this would be some kind of performance done by Baruch students, I was less than excited about it. I clearly misjudged the quality and content of the performance, and was extremely proud to call Baruch the school I attend after hearing these monologues. I think the actors were incredible, as well.

I personally enjoyed the news literacy workshop the most because as an aspiring journalist it really resonated with me. I not only found the workshop to be very helpful but interesting as well. You would think that you can trust what you hear on the news but in reality you cannot always trust what you hear. This workshop really taught me that it is important to check your sources no matter how reliable they seem to be. This is currently a very important lesson for me being a college student because I know I’m going to face many situations where I need to evaluate a source. As well as being an important lesson for right now this workshop will definitely help me in the future because as a journalist one of the most important aspects of my job is going to be to evaluate sources and make sure that they are reliable. Distributing false or incorrect information in the journalism field is a disastrous career move that one never wants to make so I definitely think that this workshop was helpful.

I feel that this workshop was my favorite because I was able to connect to the most out of all the others. I feel like it fit right into my field of interest being that the speaker works for the journalism department and the workshop was directly related to journalism. I also think it is my favorite because I think it taught a lesson that I believe can be helpful to everyone, not only students, and not only people interested in journalism.

For those of you who don’t recognize the men with white hair that is Professor Corwin. One of the most classic teacher I have ever meant in my life. Don’t let his old age look fool you. He is fully aware of what is going on. I reason why I chose a picture of him is because of the great joy he gives me from each of this classes. I love his walk, drooling ability and humor. He is very outspoken and speaks whatever is on his mind. He is not afraid to call anyone yet and knows when on is not paying attention. Professor Corwin will always put a smile on my face and gives me the motivation to do what I love no matter how old one is. Another Reason why I love and enjoy Professor Corwin so much is because he reminds me of my grandfather who passed away two years ago.

I don’t really have a favorite enrichment workshop, but I guess the Baruch Voices was the most interesting (with the Rubin Museum in a close second). I liked hearing the monologues from other freshman because bits and pieces of the ones that were performed hit home for me. Like talking about trying to distance yourself from your overprotective parent or trying to have a fresh start or feeling like sometimes you’re stuck in high school or even just wanting to go back to when you were younger and things were simpler. Voices didn’t really inspire me. I’m not going to go out and become the most outgoing person in the world that is involved in a bunch of clubs and such. I’ll take my time; test the waters with a club or two so I don’t drown with homework, clubs, and work. It seemed like Voices was shorter this time than it was when we saw it on convocation day. I kind of wish it would have been longer to represent more people because there were a lot of good monologues in our class alone.

So I chose this picture because it kind of reflects the amount of work I’ve had to do this semester. I have a pretty hefty work load almost every night. I expected it to be a ton of work and it pretty much has been. In high school we could kinda not do homework and still be fine but here I’m pretty much lost if I don’t do all my work. we’re used to being spoon fed all the information we need to know for tests and the classes in general but it’s a lot more independent work here. It is what I expected and it’s a good foreshadowing of what I have to expect in the next upcoming semesters.

My first semester at Baruch College will soon come to an end. It is a bittersweet moment because on one hand I really like my classes and the people I have classes with, but on the other hand I’m so excited for what comes next. Baruch has opened me up to many new opportunities that I will never forget. Today I even tried sushi for the first time! Even though I didn’t like it I’m still glad I tried it. Going to this school has also allowed me to explore parts of the city that I wouldn’t normally have visited. Last week was the first time I walked by the Empire State building (which is pretty pathetic since I’ve lived so close to it all my life.) There are so many great things about Baruch I wouldn’t even be able to pick my favorite part about it. I really like the hustle and bustle of the city, the campus buildings, and all the people I have met so far. I am so excited for what is yet to come.

I chose this picture of Grand Central because this is where I pass through every day on my commute to and from school. I think this is a beautiful building and taking the train is one of the highlights of my day. I love watching the tourists’ faces as they look around in awe (even though they get in the way sometimes lol.)

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=TwudztKsYehggM:&imgrefurl=http://www.styleblueprint.com/food-and-entertaining/national-takeout-food-month/&docid=-h5ivt4A_hu5uM&imgurl=http://www.styleblueprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Woman-pulling-out-hair2.gif&w=459&h=364&ei=Yje4ULi6HM7V0gH77oDoBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=500&vpy=163&dur=4237&hovh=200&hovw=252&tx=145&ty=58&sig=108943682843762982201&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=184&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:162

The past few months at Baruch have really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I was never looking forward to starting another four years of school, but i figured I had no choice so i might as well make the best of it. My short time here has made me realize that there are so many things that i don’t know. Taking the required classes has introduced me to fields that I would’ve never considered interesting at all. English lit for example has become my favorite class even though Math has had my heart since elementary school. I also realized that I don’t want to pursue a career in actuarial science or accounting anymore. College has forced me to explore other fields even though I was set on a career in math and business. Unfortunately I think that I will have to transfer schools in order to explore my options even further, but i haven’t really had time to grow attached to this school anyway. In addition to this, I’ve noticed that I’m not a kid anymore. I mean I’m still young, but the decisions I make now are going to affect me for the rest of my life. It’s a scary fact since I still have a child’s mentality. I still like Spongebob and I still hate school but I’m not really allowed to be as carefree as I used to be anymore. Now is when I’m supposed to plan for my future! I cant believe life is happening so quickly. But anyway, school these last months wasn’t as bad as I thought.

So far this semester, I’ve experienced many changes i had to adjust to. For one i could say the work given to me lead me to discipline myself to just do it. Especially due to the fact that I just came fresh off of “senioritis” from high school, didn’t really do much my last semester at Bedford Academy. This was huge for me to start completing assignments because it shows how responsible I’ve become. Especially because going to college comes with alot of responsibility. This leads to why i chose the picture of a plant growing to show how i grew as the semester progressed. Coming to a college pretty much felt like adjusting to a foreign country. It is very different from high school, much bigger, more activities to do, and alot more work to be responsible for. Also no more parent teacher conference, so overall at Baruch I’m responsible for myself and only i could prove whether i  have a successful college career or not. It  hit me as soon as people in my family kept repeating how important it is for me to do well in college. They explained that the more education i gain the better life will be, and how overall i could get a good job to help me get by in this economy. This pressure on me in time eventually turned into confidence because i notice how much more dedicated i was to my education. Baruch helped me grow to the point that i feel ready to be an adult and take on any responsibility that comes in my way                                                             .

These last few months have been some of the most stressful months of my life. They have also been some of the best months because I feel that I have learned so much about myself and so much about what I want from life. I only wish I didn’t learn these things in such a stressful manor. I’m the type of person who loves change. I don’t mind it at all and I tend to always embrace it. I find change to be very exciting and I like the feeling of starting fresh. I am just not used to everything changing at once and as much as I don’t want to I have to admit it, this whole process has been very overwhelming for me. I guess the reason for this is I have never realized how used to everything in my life I was. I have always lived in the same house, went to the same school with the same people and never realized how drastic of a change college would be. And just to clarify, yes I knew it would be different and challenging,  if there is one thing I’m not its naïve but I just never acknowledged how drastic of a change this would be. This lack of realization is ultimately my fault but I don’t know what else I was expecting. I feel like I’m finally starting to get it all together and hey guess what….the semester is practically over. My impeccable sense of timing has of course stayed the same throughout all of this. But better late than never, at least that’s what I like to think to make myself feel better. At the end of the day, I know I am a good student and have the grades to prove it, I just need to learn how deal with stress better. I am so lucky to have the life I have and to be able to be going to college. I have everything I could ever possibly want right now and need to stop stressing out before my hair falls out or something, I don’t want to be stressed out and bald. Anyway the point is I need to learn how to relax and enjoy life rather than stress out over it. The End.

courtesy of google images