FRO13 LC15

The first semester at Baruch was the most hectic period in my life. The average amount of sleep that I have received was about 5-6 hours 

per day. The latter weeks, it has been closer to 5 hours, including on the weekends. The lack of days off was especially hard. It is possible to function for 4 days with 4 hours per night sleep as long as I get one or two days off. Unfortunately this luxury was not available.  Yet this intense schedule is not necessarily due to the Baruch classes workload. Until last Friday I had an internship on Friday. I quit it, so now I’ll have one day off. On the weekends I’m usually traveling for work. Serving as a Vice-President of the Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations in America, I spent 5 hours every single day working there on a voluntary basis. We did manage to be extremely productive and even hire a person, but my grades have not been up to par where I wanted them to be. I missed a couple of extra credit opportunities and drafts submissions.

As of February I’m thinking of dropping that huge voluntary workload and start thinking about my personal career development. Given the newly hired person, I hope to delegate my responsibilities and focus more on Baruch and studies………

Since I’m typing this while Ms. Wagner is talking, it would be rude to make this long. This was the first meme i found on my Tumblr in a bit. It was really funny and relevant to me. Uhh these were/are basically my sentiments through applying to internships as a high school senior and freshman. The first job/internship is usually the hardest to get.

I can’t particular think why this is so ingenious but all i know is that i’ve excited for the Thanksgiving weekend… and i had a great weekend too.

#deanscholar

Seeing the documentary about meditation, it did not surprise me that it helped many students achieve better results in class. I have tried meditating in the past, and can verify from personal experience, that indeed, meditation is very helpful, both mentally and physically. It helps you find an internal balance and harmony. Physically it forces you to relax every single muscle in your body in order to achieve the needed state of relaxation. Mentally it allows you to clear your mind. It is a double shot of relaxation.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsjuxicapq1qjykxzo1_400.gif

My first impressions of the semester were that I could handle it, but soon I realized that the work here at Baruch and in college has become a formidable and worthy opponent. While I was ready to go hard for college, and especially start off strong for career at Baruch, my attitude has been still resonating with the attitude I had my second semester in high school. The picture above is close to how I feel when I am assigned an insane amount of work from a couple of classes, all due around the same time. It’s a mixure of contempt, and anxiety from the work that needs to be done. Add a dash of hilarity to the entire situation, the situation that comes with knowing that you will procrastinate for no reason, and you will still do it. It is a funny situation, and I will need to simply embrace it and conquer this attitude for a successful career here at Baruch. Gurl, please.

It’s been quite an interesting first three months at Baruch College, filled with sleep deprivation and complaining about teachers and classes. In fact, I honestly really disliked FRO at the start of the semester but I grew to enjoy it quite a bit (Although I would like to apologize the Matthew and Ms. Wagner for doing my blog posts like 2 weeks late almost every time). I discovered that my favorite class is Calculus, as I can sometimes catch up on an hour or more of sleep in one class. In fact, my good friend Kevin Lam has kindly documented my periods of hibernation. Although he claims he only has the one image I attached, I’m quite sure he has a full album on his computer titled “Dmitriy’s Life”. Nevertheless, I keep telling myself that his efforts to stalk me are meant in a friendly manner and are not creepy at all. I do spend a lot of time doing schoolwork though and that causes me to lose sleep and, as a result, pass out in class. I found the first few months to be stressful, but fun and full of new experiences.

Side note: I also did not learn better study habits at all considering the fact that I’m uploading this post at about 12:25, and this is due at 12:50.

http://defenderofbreath.tumblr.com/post/33933566941/cronused-flyingbusinessman-jpg-these-are-my

This image is possibly the best representation of my collegiate experience so far, mainly because I only have just learned how to be a semi-responsible adult and manage my time in a better way. I kind of slacked off around midterms and it was really annoying because I knew I needed to do the work but I didn’t feel like it. And, unfortunately, I would rather major in blogging as opposed to writing an essay about feminism in the 70’s. But, thankfully, I’ve finally learned how to manage my time without people hovering over me, and I’ve gotten out of that senior year mindset that minimal effort is needed to do work. And, to be honest, the effort actually feels kind of good. I feel like I can actually accomplish something and learn, even if it’s totally unrelated to my planned major and minor. I feel like the trick was to get interested in the subject, because if you really just loathe going to a class, you’re not going to want to do the work and you’ll slack and go on Netflix or Tumblr or Buzzfeed instead. And this was exactly what I needed to know how to do in order to get through this semester.

I have gone to Friends Seminary, a Quaker school right down third avenue for both middle school and high school. Part of our school proceedings was to gather in silence three times a week in the morning as an Upper School and sit in silence for close to half an hour. It was a time to reflect, not to sleep (even though I am guilty of that many a time). The silence was not akward, and it invited thoughts forward. After years of going to the silent meetings your mind looked forward to it. The silence served as a time to relax without having to be unconscious. An analogy would be yoga for the mind. A time dedicated to stretching those brain muscles that are usually being occupied by studying or other high school drama. A time dedicated to exploring your thoughts without consequence. You could be stressed about a test that day or any other situation you could be going through, but that time was sacred in its own right. That silence was respected, and not because someone told you it was, but with time you learned to appreciate it for what it was: a safe and peaceful space for your thoughts in the real world. The workshop on meditation resonated within me for that reason. I saw myself in those students that were combatting the anxiety of everyday stress by breathing and laying back into the depths of your own mind.

For our New York Times assignment, my group decided to focus our efforts on leadership, and its place in Baruch College this semester. Our first semester in college is definitely a new stage in our lives, and focused leadership in all aspects of our lives, are needed to succeed. Leadership is important for students to succeed because an example of leadership is needed for modeling successful behavioral patterns. Aside from that, this first semester of university, a new stage in our lives, a sense of helplessness may easily wash over us. Leadership, and the sense of protectiveness that comes from having a leader, is a welcoming idea for Baruch freshmen. Leadership embodies us, because we need it to thrive, and we are being trained at the same time to one day be those very same leaders. We are products of leadership and the foster parents of it at the same time. In these next four years at Baruch, hopefully the leaders in us will truly emerge.

Source- http://cheezburger.com/7898071552

Coming from a competitive high school where time was very scarce and had to be managed properly meant that I had learned the ability to be able to excel at situations when deadlines were approaching fast. However, at Baruch College, the abnormal amounts of free time in my schedule has cost me the ability to work to my potential. The days when I would have a two to four hour break in between my classes meant that I have wasted time that I could have spent working or resting at home. It took many weeks for me to get used to this extra time and I decided that in order to reduce this extra time, I found some activities to participate in at Baruch. Even if Baruch isn’t the same as my high school, I will learn to enjoy my time at Baruch discovering new activities that weren’t offered to me before.

Coolio, I made a gif!

But why isn’t it working! 

Please believe me when I swear that I didn’t just take a picture of my granola bar for this blog post. I actually took 3 pictures and went to a site for making gifs. The grains of my efforts can be seen here (or by clicking on the image):

http://gifmaker.me/PlayGIFAnimation.php?folder=2013112611RkhJ57MaaIdEnlBttI4OGv&file=output_WzfGuK.gif

I don’t quite understand why I decided on my granola bars to be the general summary of my first semester. I eat it nearly everyday for lunch because I can’t stand buying things with a negative ROI.

A NEGATIVE ROI!

Nor do I want to ask my parents for money. In the end, it’s just the two of us: me and my Nature Valley Crunchy Oats ‘n Honey granola bar with 16 grams of whole grain.

Although I’ve done pretty much the same thing in high school (except with more food variation), Baruch does differ in that there seems to be more generous people. Oddly enough.

They’ll share things with me, and maybe with luck they’ll give me stuff! That’s true friendship. One day, I’ll give something back.

* Rab alonarg is “granola bar” backwards. That’s probably the most creative I can get with a bar.