FRO 14 DFA

So this is college. Who knew that for the first half of my freshmen year I’d be with the same people and actually have the chance to make some great friends. College really isn’t anything like the movies portray it though, it’s magical and completely different in almost every single way. College for me is a world of responsibilities, opportunities and freedoms that I never had before. I grew up in Brooklyn and always went to small schools. My elementary, middle, and high school only had about a thousand kids each and most of my friends journeyed with me through each grade. Besides my group of friends, dancing was also a very big part of my life and it stayed with me through the years. But ever since college started I simply have not had the time for dancing. I only visited my studio 3 times in the past couple of months, which is a disgrace considering I used to spend at least 6 hours a week there. The girls and boys who I grew up with at dance, are people who I now rarely see even though they mean so much to me. Dance taught me a lot about myself and brought me to a place I can basically call home. My high school was also a place in which I felt very comfortable. I had great friends, which I had known from elementary school; phenomenal teachers, who were willing to help with any issue; and even an Assistant Principal who I can call anytime for whatever reason. I hope that Baruch can become a new home for me too since I will be spending much of my next four years there. I also hope that I can take advantage of the opportunities given to me at Baruch and have the time of my life while studying my butt off to achieve all that I know I am capable of.

So far, I really like it here at Baruch. Not as much as the first month though, because they don’t give out free food anymore. I have so much more time and freedom for myself than I did during high school. Because I was in an agriculture program at John Bowne High School, I had to have double period of agriculture each year, which made my schdeule so long.. Except the freshman year when my schedule was periods 3~10, which is a normal schdedule, I had periods 1~10 for the rest of my years, even senior year!! Therefore, I love my college schedule, even if I have to come to school Monday to Friday.

As I said, I was in the agriculture program during high school, animal science to be more exact. There is a mini farm right at our school with miniature horses, cows, sheeps, goats, alpacas, and small animals, birds, and reptiles. Most of my classmates went to vet majors or other majors of the animal field, and I was the only one that came to baruch.

During weekends, I have a part time job. I work at asian supermarkets handing out samples of food products and advertising them. It’s pretty fun and a good part time job for college students! If any of you girls are interested, just ask me anytime 🙂

College is such a chill place compared to my high school and I’m having a good time because I’ve met some great people. Right now, I’m just trying to learn as much as I can about anything that interests me the slightest bit, trying to figure out what I truly enjoy. My main goal is to be successful in whatever I do. I have a lot of goals and I want to fulfill all of them. From going to a Knicks game at MSG to landing a nice internship on Wall Street, I do not want to have any regrets that I could not do something. I want to improve on my good qualities when it comes to working hard but also learn to communicate better with others and gain the confidence that I can do anything if I put my mind and all my effort towards it. While doing all this I still wanna have fun, spend time with my friends and not let college consume my life. I”m still going to play ball or watch movies but limit the time I waste and study a little more because I know I can do better. One thing for sure is that I will never stay up all night studying because that’s not who I am and I will not put myself in that position. It’s just too crazy.

It’s hard being the “good girl.”  Everybody thinks of you as an angel.  Once this guy told me that I have a pure heart. In my head I was like “oh my God” not again. They see me as the epitome of holiness. Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to say that they’re totally wrong. I’m just saying that they need to give me a break. They need to stop putting me on a pedestal and glorifying me. Furthermore, people have high expectations of good girls.  They expect us to live up to a certain reputation or certain standards of behavior. I’ve always done everything that was expected of me. But when I bend the rules a little bit it’s World War 3. I’m reprimanded, and labeled a lazy girl for not answering the phone at 5 am in the morning. Who wakes up at 5am in the morning when classes start at 10?  Who wakes up early during the weekends?.  They don’t understand the fact that I’m not in High school anymore; therefore my classes don’t start at 7 or 8am. I need freedom. I’m tired of people controlling my life. I’m ready to live my life and soar like an eagle.

College life is interesting. I like the freedom as opposed to the jail box I was in for four years during high school.

I’m broke. I spend the majority of my money on food. Not McDonalds, but, not super healthy food either. Besides, eating McDonalds would make me feel like an oily sponge, plus I won’t be as broke as I am now if McDonalds was the main thing I ate. I don’t know. I just don’t really eat as much as I would like to for now.

Coffee has now become the fuel I need to get through the day. I like hazelnut iced coffee with light ice only because I just found out that it costs more to have no ice, which doesn’t even make sense. I mean if anything, it should be less money for no ice. Ice is solidified water after all, so why is it more expensive without ice? I don’t know.

The library has become my second home. I spend most of my days in it. I think I’m going to start bringing a sleeping bag to sleep in the back corner on the fifth floor where it’s nice and quiet.

Starting new is a scary experience.

Meeting new people.

Being independent.

Counting on yourself.

Not knowing what to expect.

This is what I experienced on the first day of college.

As time passed,

I met new friends.

Started to experience the college life.

And learned the difference between high school and college.

College.

There is so much work to be done.

I don’t want to do anything, but I have to.

So much work to be done, but there’s not enough time.

Sacrificing my sleep to complete my work.

What is sleep?

Everything is so stressful that I just want to stop and drop dead on the floor.

Can’t I just go back in time to the days I don’t have to worry about anything?

I miss those times.

Snowboarding, skateboarding and photography are the things that have made me who I am today. I’ve been snowboarding for my whole life, starting from when I was 5 years old. When I was 4, my parents tried to get me to learn how to ski, but after one day I was demanding that they let me learn to snowboard instead. Now I’m 18 years old, and snowboarding is still something I look forward to every winter. As humans, we have not been blessed with the ability to fly, but when you’re going down a mountain at 40 miles per hour and airing a couple feet into the air, it’s almost as if you were flying. There was a point in my life where I could no longer sit around during the spring and summer waiting to go snowboarding again, and that’s why I started skateboarding. What skateboarding meant to me was that I no longer had to wait half a year waiting for the cold winter months to come back. Now, I was always flying. When it was hot outside, I was soaring down a steep hill in Spanish Harlem, or zipping around the bowl at my local skatepark. In the winter, I was cruising down mountains until I was physically unable to move.

Photography is my only hobby, which I’ve been doing for a few years now. I have recently stopped using digital cameras and only use film now. I believe that shooting with film cameras forces the photographer to put a lot more consideration into the composition of their photos instead of mindlessly clicking a camera button. I find it fun to develop photos too, because after a few weeks or months, you completely forget what is on a roll of film. Occasionally I’ll get back my pictures and I’ll have no idea when or where I took a picture. The transition from shooting digital to shooting only film was hard, since my favorite thing to take pictures of was skateboarders, and shooting skateboarders with a film camera was way harder than doing it with a digital camera.

On September 21^st, 2014 I attended the Climate March. This to me was a life changing event. 400,000 people showed up and it was the largest climate march in history. On the way there, I thought 20,000 people were going to show up, and I was thinking “oh, they’re just a bunch of hippies.” Nearly half a million people showed up, after talking to dozens of people that day, I realized that to change the world, you have to change yourself first. That day I learned that just eating meat is a huge factor in climate change, and just going from a meat eater to a vegetarian can cut your carbon footprint in half. Since then I have become strictly vegan, my dad is now a vegetarian and my mom has become a pescatarian.

I plan to leave New York City as soon as I can. The city has trapped me like a prisoner in a jailcell, and I’m just waiting for my sentence to be up, or for someone to bail me out. Nothing gets me through the day better than dreaming about living in the great outdoors.

I am Monica Mikolajczyk; I’m a skateboarder, a snowboarder, a photographer, a vegan and a dreamer.

I’m not incredibly resilient or as tough as nails, but I try my best. I don’t like letting minute conflicts and petty problems get to the best of me and divert my attention from more important experiences. I am a realist and am sometimes dubbed as a naysayer, but I feel as though it is more useful to consider the negative side of things very carefully rather than only focusing on the positive aspects to avoid disappointment and being let down.

Ever since I was a child, I have been stubborn about trivial matters and have a propensity to be easily annoyed or angered by certain things. I am working hard to rid myself of these toxic tendencies because I know that my psychological burdens will then be diminished. I know that during the times in which I have a cheerful disposition, I am a lot happier and generally more satisfied with the way things are in life. A mere human cannot control everything.

An important goal of mine is to learn to be more optimistic in sticky situations and be more tolerant of things I do not have power over. Conquering these obstacles will allow me to achieve immense personal growth as a young adult.

Hello everyone! My name is Hurmat Hashmi and I am seventeen years old. I will be eligible to cast my votes for elections as of November 2 (go Scorpios!)  I am undecided on what I should major in, but I am considering finance. I am, unfortunately, often indecisive on several matters.

But one thing I am sure about is my passion to help others. I find it important to be able to give back to my community in any way possible to encourage positive change. I love to work with nonprofit organizations such as the Resilience Advocacy Project, which seeks to rid of injustices that often result from poverty and to empower the youth of New York City through numerous action-based programs. Another nonprofit I work for is Publicolor, which transforms public spaces and other institutions throughout bleak, often disadvantaged New York City neighborhoods into vivid, brightly painted areas that enhance the academic environments of young people.

I participate in various different programs and am therefore pretty busy a lot of the time. I’m sure that for many of us, it would be so much more convenient to have more hours in the day to do things we really like. I have enjoyed painting ever since I was a tiny tot and wish that I had more time to create new works. The last thing I created was a tulip for Mother’s Day using acrylic paint. I like listening to almost all kinds of music and seeing different dance styles. I think that music and dance are so important in many cultures and are usually among the staples of people’s interests. In my free time I like to practice a variety hairstyles on myself and my sisters; we often volunteer ourselves as each other’s lab rats.