I know I am just a little bit late, but it’s only a little, come on…

• I talked to Professor Deanna. Since I already gave my speech and don’t know what I said during the speech, I’ve decided to write some bulletpoints of my speech (Professor  Deanna said that it’s okay)

So here it is:

• This monologue is a good opportunity to know each other better
•  That’s why my speech is about me
• My first name is Omer, but call me Ihsan (Middle Name). It’s much easier for you to pronounce
• I am from Turkey and didn’t want to come to the USA in the first place
• I went to high school in Ct, which is a really boring state
• It was like a Turkish Boarding School
• That’s why my english is bad, because I always hanged out with my Turkish friends (I regret)
• Now here I am in College. I thought It was going to be fun, but it’s not
• All I do is go to school, then do the homework (What a perfect life we have)
• I hope everything’s going to be better after the Freshman Year
• I LOVE SOCCER!

I posted a status on Facebook when college started regarding my impending entrance into Baruch. In retrospect, calling it anything less than an outpouring of regret and grief would not do justice to the sadness that I felt as I was writing it.

And it is still much the same: the prospect of leaving my family in financial destitution, severing bonds with all the cherished friends that I have built up over the years, still resonates emptily in my heart. It is the day when I will become an adult, the day when a new college will inaugurate my independence with new demands and new hardships. The prospect of facing this alone, without my past friends, is daunting.

However, I’ve met my incoming classmates, who have proven to be true gold in the face of the fire and have given me something to look forward to in Baruch.

Thanks guys – Kevin

College has been a great experience. It’s something I’ve always been looking forward to, like many other students I think, but more especially for me because I went to three high schools. My patience was running thin during my senior year of high school, ironically, since my motto is “Patience is a virtue”.

The second best part of college is the independence, it really brings out my Type A personality from within, especially when it comes to group projects. I really get to be in control of my life and organize everything. I get to do whatever I want ,accordingly to my schedule, and in the way that I want things to be done. I plan, plan, plan, plan, then execute. College really compliments my personality.

The best part of attending Baruch is just being able to stay in the number one city of the world. Even if Baruch doesn’t have a traditional campus, we make the city our campus. The city is our playground. Every single moment of our lives is part of the college experience. I get it, you guys want to go to a popular party school in the middle of nowhere, but do you know why they constantly party in those colleges where you dorm? It’s because they have nothing better to do. They live in towns where there’s nothing. We LIVE in NYC.  You can party anywhere in NYC, plus we have so much more than those middle-of-no-where-towns.

I know that one of the biggest complaints of Baruch is the commute. Some people might even think of it as a waste of time.  For me, it’s part of my college experience. How many times can a person who dorms be able to say that there was a shoot-out on the 6 train? Or that they saw a homeless person jumping around in circles, while singing to Taylor Swift? Remember that time when you and your friends were trying to get home on the uptown E train from Canal Street at 3 AM and you accidentally took the downtown A? Not the person who attends Syracuse or the person who dorms at some college in Ohio.  NYC is a place where anything can happen at any time of the day and anywhere. The spontaneity of our city is what makes our college experience so exciting.

Baruch resides in the best part of Manhattan, Downtown. It doesn’t get much better than that. There is a plethora of food and entertainment options just waiting for us. I understand, as college students, most of us are broke! Or even dirt poor! But you don’t have to spend massive amounts of dollars just to enjoy good food and entertainment. There are so many cheap, and even free, options that are available all throughout the five boroughs! We just have look and ask for it and we’ll be able to find them. We have easy access to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and even Long Island, if you’re craving suburbia! Let’s not forget that there is amazing coffee almost everywhere in the city!

The door is there and it’s up to us to choose whether or not to open that door and keep it open. Our experience is what we make of it.

Shoutout to all the good coffee out there for keeping me sane!

I dont know what to say about college. I take it one day at a time. I experience so many things everyday it is hard to keep track of everything that is happening. I learn so many new things so fast and meet so many people that its hard to keep track. I can’t really describe my college experience in this short monologue. To be honest, I don’t even understand this assignment. Everything confuses and overwhelms me so much that sometimes I just have to go to sleep and take a nap. I like the people I meet and I have a lot of friends but I really don’t know anyone. I don’t think I have had a real conversation where I have gotten to know anyone and I don’t think anyone really knows me. Maybe thats my fault, I’ve been called anti social before. The class assignments are tedious. Some of professors are nice, some of them aren’t. The trains aren’t the best. When I arrive to class in the morning, I’m usually exhausted and angry. Rush hour sucks. Its 11:41 pm, its birthday and i still didn’t get my cake yet. I still don’t understand this assignment. That has basically been college for me. College has also been my safe home. It’s become the home away from home where my outside problems can’t hurt me. I focus on my work and laugh with friends. Sometimes I’d rather be here with you guys than back in Whitestone. On weekends, I can’t wait to come back to Baruch so I could see some of my fellow students. 

TIME

 What is one thing that we all have but always complain about not having enough of?

Time.

When we wake up to the six o’clock alarm in the morning we see time.

When we get on the MTA to commute to school we estimate how much time this will waste.

When we get home from school we ask ourselves how much time to we have before we have to do our homework?

When we finally finish everything in our day and we go to sleep we ask how much time do we have to sleep?

It is everywhere. It is the ultimate currency that everyone posses. The only difference between value of our time and the value of the Dollar or the value of the Yen is that we, ourselves dictate its worth.

Our time can worth eight twenty five an hour or nine or it could be worth a million.

We are the CEOs of our own company, last name first name incorporated, and the president, secretary and treasurer of our own country. We control our own inflation and deflation, physically or financially.

I have come to realize that there is only twenty-four hours in a day and what you choose to do with it will decide the value of your own currency.

On the supply and demand graph of life we need to see which demand is worth while and how much of our supply should go to it. An example I’ve witnessed a friend of mine who finished her mid term paper a week ahead of schedule in order to review it over the next few days, so that she can get a perfect score. Versus me who decided my time was better allocated in Netflix watching Orange Is The New Black.

Time.

Everyone has the same amount, it’s a matter of how you use them.

Four months. Onehundred and twenty days. Two thousand eight hundred and eighty hours. My tuition costs about two thousand dollars. So every hour, my time costs me point six nine dollars. Excluding food, rent and entertainment. So right off the bat my company is loosing money. My stocks are red. Why would anyone invest in me? To put it in real life terms, why would a company hire me?

Time.

My time is my potential to grow. My company, fortunately has many more hours to be the next fortune five hundred. That is why I will use every second of it improving so that one day my stocks or even my currency will be on the headlines of Wall Street Journal.

Time.

This next big step in our lives is college. High school was a fun time in which I made life long memories and life long friends that I know I can trust. But it is time to break out of our comfort zone, meet new people, and make new friends. On the first day, there was so much information, and useful resources presented that it was overwhelming and hard to remember it all. I hope on using most of the resources here at Baruch such as the writing center, and the library as well as the SACC tutoring center but I also want to enjoy my time here at Baruch. I want to join a sports team and/or a business fraternity next semester. This is the beginning of the rest of our lives. The stress was enormous the first day, if I was going to make it on time, will I find my classes, meet nice people, like my professors, etc. The stress went away after the first few days but came back because we had papers to write and tests to study for, not fun. Having friends in classes definitely makes it easier, as well as the classes more enjoyable especially when there is a bad professor.

College. When I thought of college, I imagined laying down on green grassy sun lit lawns in the morning and at night I would be a cram specialist, aiming to survive the night studying for midterms the next day, wearing my month-unwashed hoodie and ridiculously comfortable sweats,sitting next the a 60 watt lamp in my college library. But I guess this was not the path for me. I had the grades, school participation, extracurricular: Cross country, indoor track, out track, yet there was one thing that held me back and that’s when I knew I had to make a good choice than a dream choice. It was either I go live out my university dorming life with debt or not come out of college without debt with a decent degree. Of course, my choice was decided. I know this wasn’t what I wanted but I guess staying home and attending Baruch isn’t that bad. I still get to eat home cooking plus now that I’m a college student, I get an upgrade on my allowance. Also to mention picking Baruch was somewhat like a job as well. As long as I excel in my class then they pay me in financial aid which can supply a couple of years of pizza. And of course did I mention pizza, one dollar pizza. Its pizza and it’s a dollar and it’s right across the street for  a dollar. I guess college isn’t that bad. It’s what I make of  Baruch that counts then counts the days I’m done with Baruch.

Before the college application process, I decided to leave New York City. I felt bored to stay in the city where I have already spent four years. Going to college is a chance for me to make a change, to leave New York City. Therefore, I applied to many SUNY, and few private colleges that are out of the city, also several CUNY suggested by my guidance. I actually had no interest in attending any CUNY before the decision came out. I wanted to be out of the city. The decision came very fast which I did not expect. However, I changed my mind after I actually received the congratulation letters from SUNY, private colleges and CUNY. I decided to stay in the city. Then, I responded to Baruch.

The first week of college was busy. I was shocked by the syllabus since there were so many papers to write. Even though I expected there would be many writings, there were actually more than I expected. In the first week, I was confusing about finding classrooms. Nevertheless, it was interesting. I like the schedule because I have more free time compared to high school schedule. People here are nice; I enjoyed being at Baruch so far.

For the past two months, College seems just like high school. I’m constantly seeing familiar faces, I’m still the hungry sleepy child I was a year ago, and I’m still stuck in crowded trains commuting to school. I’m not complaining though, I chose not to attend a private university so I can save money and stay with the people I care about. However, long gaps between classes is what I hate the most, I feel as if it’s a waste of my time. Being a poor college student means I couldn’t do anything fun during my gaps either so I’m always stuck bumming around campus or other people’s campuses. But college is okay I guess, at least the workload got easier in comparison to high school and most importantly, I am not shoved into the elevators every time I go to class like I did for four years. I was told college is going to be exhausting, but I’ll have fun and time will just fly by. I’m not sure if the latter is true because as of right now all I want is some food and a pillow.

I wake up after too little sleep

I eat something unhealthy and cheap that I know isn’t good for me

I pick up my backpack which seems to get heavier by the week

I walk down to the train station

I get elbowed in the face and kicked in the shins on the train

My metro card is low and I miss the first ferry boat

I’m running late and someone gets seasick next to me on the boat

I hurry on to the hot, crowded R train, someone sneezes in my mouth, i’m pretty sure I have ebola

I worry about all my papers and exams on my way to school

I hurry into class and struggle to stay awake

I have no idea what’s going on since I was late, can’t wait for class to end

I still have high anxiety at the end of class

My friends come over to talk to me

Friendly faces, familiar places

“You know what, i’m worrying too much, things won’t be that bad”