I came to many realizations about people and life as a whole this first semester at Baruch. This relates to professors, students, friends, family, and others as well as tasks and situations. Although we all have this cliche set in our minds and have heard it time after time, I’ve gone through some experiences that seriously have shaped my view of the saying. Things/people really are not as they may initially seem. On the school spectrum it affected my grades greatly. Although i’ve learned this lesson too far in the game for this semester, I realized that rather than trying to fight the system for how “evil” and “irrelevant” it may seem, there are ways to work it to my advantage. I learned that perseverance really is the key to success and that no matter how much I find an assignment unnecessary or ridiculous, it will not go away until I set my mind to it and actually spend the time to deal with it. I have learned to peel away my judgements of many things and what I may see on the surface of them and do as I should in getting myself results that suit my approach, good if not great ones. I also learned this with my peers. Recently I’ve been able to look at all of my fellow students surrounding me in completely new ways and peel the judgements I had initially made about them. They weren’t necessarily bad, but more-so hollow and simplistic. I got to take a personal look into people’s mannerisms and hear more about their lives outside of school, quirks, insecurities, passions, and more. People are not as simple as they seem. I’ve learned to peel past the easy assumptions that one can make, and formulate more productive and valid. I was extremely discouraged this semester but I won’t give up. I’m happy with my new friends that i’m making in all different places; LC09, WBMB Radio, socially, etc. I am happy with my new work ethic that I unfortunately began to adapt to very late in the game, and I’m proud of my new awareness of myself and those around me. This semester was a huge turning point in my life, but I think i’m headed in a great direction. I’ll keep working on it and i’ll keep peeling those initial layers until I get to the wholesome centers.