My first three months at Baruch can best be described as an exhausted koala bear. I am either very tired or sleeping in many of my classes. This is a problem that I must fix by regulating my sleeping habits.  I hope that this picture becomes an inaccurate description of my time next semester.

Coming into college I had the notion that classes would be harder, but I figured since I took AP classes I was smart enough to take all of it on. That said these past 3 months have taught me a lesson in humility. As I have come to realize that, I was a big fish in a small pond when I was in High School. Meaning I seemed knowledgeable because I just listened to what the teacher said and in High School that was enough to get by. In college however it is necessary to listen but it is also expected that college students study and review material constantly. In order to seem smart you need to know the background of what is being studied. And when stating an opinion it is important to back up that opinion with facts in order to  construct a smart argument. Furthermore, Baruch has an extreme level of diversity, with that comes other opinions and perspectives that are smarter than my own. Overall though I have enjoyed the amount of intelligent minds surrounding me in the college environment and I have loved meeting new people. So though I have found that I am not as smart as I thought, I have made my peace with that and I am eager to see what challenges next semester brings.

Coming into Baruch for the first time, I had a lot of expectations. I thought I’d get some sleep, I thought I’d make friends, and worst of all, I thought I’d clean up my work ethic. The short answer is no. Just as the image above says, I continue to write single drafts of essays and giving them in as finals. Which is a lesson I’ve learned: just because you’re in college, doesn’t mean you become the amazing student you always hoped you’d morph into.
With this in mind, my first 3 months at Baruch were all about learning. I had to learn how to wake up earlier in the morning than I wanted to, deal with a commute that I didn’t like, and adjust to being an adult for the first time. I had to learn the hard way that the bureaucracy in Baruch works like a 1,000,000 year old machine that desperately needs oil, I learned that all my hard work for some college credits may have to fall through, and I learned that I don’t have as much time to decide on a major as I hoped I would. In fact, I also learned that as soon as you get into Baruch you HAVE to lean towards one of the 3 schools unless you wanna fall behind, since there are SO many pre-recs (especially for Zicklin). All in all, I feel like next semester will go a lot better now that I plan on dorming. I’m just glad I picked up on all of this earlier, and now at least have a plan for the future

http://collegecandy.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/what-i-do-meme-college.jpg

I think that this meme is very similar to what my college experience has been like for the past 3 months. I find myself many a times either procrastinating or just completely not doing the work I have to until the last minute due to distractions such as facebook, fantasy football and all that good stuff. Working at a bank and going to school is very hard to balance friends, family, work and school. I barely have any personal time anymore and that results in leaving my assignments to the last minute. I still have been able to meet many new friends and keep up my studying. Its just something that will take some time to adjust to the new scenario that I am in as a college freshmen.

http://collegereality.tumblr.com/post/21812412985/when-my-best-friend-and-i-have-a-class-together

This gif describes the first three months of my college career at Baruch because this is what happens most days during class.  We are not given assigned seats in most of our classes so of course our group of friends always sit next to each other.  And when this happens, it is impossible to pay attention at all times and focus on classwork when there are so many things to talk about.  Although this doesn’t only effect our learning, but also the learning of other students, we still talk throughout class because we are having a good time.  On that note, I chose this picture out of the millions on the internet because even though this is the car now, I feel that in later semesters and when our classes get more difficult, this picture will no longer be accurate.