my experience at Baruch has been very very stressful over the past 3-4 months . The image that I uploaded is a picture of a student trying to study, but he is on the verge of giving up. my life at Baruch is the same as the student in the picture. Taking 5 classes that are longer than the usual 45 minutes at high school has been so boring. I learned that I have to learn  to manage my time well. I am excited for the next semester.

http://kennychung.net/photo/scenic-urban/manhattan-bridge-walkway/10-brooklyn-bridge-park-view-from-manhattan-bridge.jpg

This photo embodies my time at Baruch so far. The view of Manhattan skyline is from the perspective of someone looking at it from Brooklyn. For me that represents my own journey from transitioning from life in Brooklyn to life in Manhattan, in which Baruch plays a major role. The angle of this photograph symbolizes my perception and awareness of life ahead–I have a glimpse of what it is like, but I still have a long way to go. The light around the evening skyline represents the dazzling light of new experiences that I encounter at Baruch. It is a light of exploration, adventure, mystery, and promise. I will walk the proverbial bridge (that is also present in this photo) from my past to my future that resides somewhere in Manhattan. Baruch is instrumental in providing that bridge from current aspirations to future successes. This ‘glimpse into the future’ is something that I associate with my time at Baruch.

Well I couldn’t really just pick one of these when they ALL define me.

I don’t mean to sound depressing but I guess the overwhelming description that I’m trying to portray through these wonderful images is .. lost. And lazy. I don’t really know my place at Baruch yet and I guess I just don’t know where to go from here. When people ask me what I want to do with my life I don’t have any answer and I just want to find an answer. It’s also my fault because I’m lazy and all I do is watch TV and eat. Work-wise I’m not really overwhelmed and yet I choose to do everything last minute all at once and that’s what makes me stress. In conclusion , my first semester at Baruch was… ok. I’m looking forward to finding my path which will hopefully happen soon enough.

This picture sums up my Baruch experience, because I’ve mostly just been meeting new people this whole time. This picture is of the first three people I really got to know, from FRO, and they’ve made school a lot easier. I found that a good friend is someone who lets you copy their math homework, when there’s the possibility of Mordechai catching you and giving both of you a zero, and they’ve helped me out a lot.

Last weekend I took the bus back to my hometown upstate. It’s normally $15 each way, and when I was on my way home I figured paying for someones ticket would be a good act of kindness.

So, on Sunday I get on the bus at about 8 and gave the driver $20. She went to grab my change, but I told her to keep it for the next person who gets on and use it for their ticket. The driver gave me the strangest look like I was on drugs or something. I told her that it was for a school project, but I think that confused her even more.

I took my seat, near enough to the front so I could see my act of kindness unfold.  And as we pulled into Greenwood Lake, a short middle-aged woman got on the bus. She gave the driver the money for the ticket, and received an extra $5 in change. The woman did a double-take of the change and mumbled something to the driver. Then the driver got out of her seat and pointed right at me saying “That kid wanted to pay for it, ask him”, and I was pretty embarrassed since everyone on the bus was looking at me.

The lady ended up coming and sitting next to me, her name is Barbara and she lives in Greenwood Lake but was visiting her son in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I told her about my project, and she acted interested. We talked about the holidays and fake Christmas trees, which was pretty weird. Overall, it was an interesting experience but I probably won’t do it again.

Rather than doing the New York Cares project, I decided I would do a random act of kindness. At first I wasn’t too sure how I could start a chain reaction but then I remembered watching this video that my friend sent me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGtaXt5f1w

Basically, these two youtubers bought and handed out food to homeless people. So inspired by the youtuber TrueStoryASA, I decided I would buy a whole bunch of bananas and hand them out to the homeless. So one morning my friend and I headed out with a bag full of bananas on the search for people in need. Let me just say that it wasn’t a smart choice to look for the homeless around Baruch because we walked maybe 15 blocks around the school and barely found any. As soon as we spotted a hobo lingering around the streets or looking through a trash can we chased them down and handed them a banana. One hobo was scared of taking the banana and even ran from us. Another one took the banana and exclaimed, “I’m a monkey.” But some were outwardly appreciative. Whether they were crazy or not, I was happy to provide them with something to fill their stomach with. The first homeless person we found was a woman sitting on crate rattling a cup of coins. To be honest I was scared to approach her but I finally went up to her and asked if she would like a banana. The look in her eyes was priceless once I handed it to her. She looked up at me and smiled and said, “Thank you so much sweetheart.” I can’t even describe the feeling that her gratitude gave me but it was incredible. A simple act of kindness can do so much and going around handing out bananas made me realize this. Some people just need a little hope and with this hope they can go a long way. At the end of the day I still had 10 bananas left in my bag and I decided I would just give the whole bag to the next homeless person I saw. I walked around Grand Central Station and sure enough, found a man looking through the trash for scraps of food. I dropped the bag of bananas in his little cart and left. The smallest of things can turn a person’s life around and I’m glad I got to help out some people, whether it was one banana or 10.

After hearing that awesome story about Matt’s friend, who started a wave of buying a coffee for a person behind himself in Starbucks, i decided to try it too. However my experiment wasn’t that successful. When i went to Starbucks one afternoon on a weekday, there was a guy standing impatiently behind me, in his mid-thirties and business attire. When i paid for my coffee , and for his to the cashier ,who was soo confused and didn’t understand what the hell she supposed to do with that extra money for the next order, business man didnt paid attention and kept himself busy on his phone. After i paid, i took a seat close by i waited for my coffee to be made. When he ordered his coffee, he didn’t even looked at the cashier, he was kind of rude to her ,  and when he wanted to pay , she said that he doesn’t have to worry about that and someone took care of his payment already . At that moment, he finally looked at her, amused and kind of red in a face.  I think he was ashamed of his rudeness. He asked her what she means, looked around pretty confused and then took out his $10 dollar bill and put it in the tip jar.  Cashier smiled at me, pleased, and that guy? He still tried to figure out who did that and smiling,muttered that people in New York are crazy.

I’ve spent nearly 1k on food this semester, and I’m  surprised as to how I’m not a 500lb monster. I wish I was joking. The good thing is, I used my  debit card, and not my credit SO im in the clear! I eat so much, I’m literally friends with the cafeteria staff because of the amount of times I’m in there. Anyways, beside the food, Baruch has been amazing for me! I love this city with all my heart and I always say that no matter how early I wake up or how long the commute is, I never regret coming to school. We are some of the luckiest people in the world to be going to college in the heart of this amazing city. “New York is not a city, its a world” Also, this experience wouldn’t have been amazing if it weren’t for some amazing people. *copies David’s post* Shout out to Radhiyah, Isabella, ‘Nesto, Jason, David (s), Andy, Aodhen, and of course Yohan! You guys are beauuuutiful, inside and out 🙂