After graduating high school, I was never one of those people who was necessarily excited for college. I was disappointed that I had to commute while all of my friends went away to school, and was not expecting college to be an enjoyable experience. However, in these past three months at Baruch I have learned that college is really what you put into it, and that going away to school does not really matter.

Despite my commute from New Jersey, I quickly got involved on campus and made friends, all of which helped me realize that I had severely underestimated the potential for me to actually have a positive experience at college. In three short months, I obtained a leadership position with the Baruch Rotaract, and formed strong friendships with the people in my fro-family. These two experiences have been integral to making my first semester at Baruch an enjoyable one, and I am grateful for them. Although my fro-family and I live in separate places and all commute to school, we are able to maintain our friendship. We spend most of our time together at school, which makes the classes, (that are not as difficult as I expected), more bearable. Through our long study sessions and time spent hanging out in the library, these people have proven to me that college is not about dorming or having the “typical college experience”. Instead, I have realized that college is what you make of it and that having a group of friends you can rely on is much more meaningful than that “typical college experience” I felt I was going to be missing out on. Even though I was never really excited for college, I am looking forward to the next four years after my experiences this first semester. Like the picture below describes, college may be expensive, but it is definitely worth it. —Teresa Palase

https://33.media.tumblr.com/92b54bbf97db456ee1707679d8e55d7c/tumblr_mwmyh1i4bc1qfrrv2o2_1280.png

How may one escape the constraints of time?

Its claws tugging at you like those of a cat.

Clocks with every excruciating chime,

Time seems to pass with the drop of a hat.

The beating hands echo that of your heart,

Pounding, trying to race the trickling sand.

Fearing failure of a task before its start,

As the stress of time makes it tough to stand.

Deadlines creep up on you, poking with grim.

You fret as you try to delay their curse,

Sensing their ruthless effects in every limb.

You imagine that you cannot feel much worse.

Yet, how can time inflict horrible pain

When its existence has people to blame?

http://slide.ly/view/2756bbdbfb44978cdcec1ba5c06ccc6a

 

When initially given this assignment, I thought creating a blog post about myself would be easy. Though I was not necessarily happy about it, I thought it would not be a problem because, generally speaking, I like to believe that I have a decent grasp of who I am as an individual. However, as I sat down to select pictures and craft my slide show, I realized just how difficult it is to effectively convey who I am as an individual in only eight images. The pictures I chose represent a few key aspects of myself, including the fact that I moved from Florida to New Jersey. I was born in Orlando, Florida, and moved to New Jersey, about three years ago, during my sophomore year of high school. As your typical, overdramatic, sophomore girl in high school, I thought this move would be the end of my life, which in many ways it was. My family and I had always moved around a lot, but the thought of moving 1,107 miles away from the state I had grown up in terrified me. Even though we moved habitually, I still had friends whom I had known the majority of my life, as well as a close-knit extended family nearby. In New Jersey, my family and I did not know anybody.  My dad had several family members in New Jersey and parts of New York, however I had never met them. Part of my parents’ goal for this move was to reconnect with my dad’s family, which I wanted no part of. My parents’ response to my countless questions regarding my family and friends was answered with the simple response, “You’ll make new ones.” Needless to say, this answer was dissatisfying and disappointing at the time. However, my parents were right (to my disappointment, unfortunately, as I have always been stubborn).

Though this move brought many changes, most, if not all, were for the better. The family members that I was reluctant to meet are now essential in my life, as I spend a large portion of my time with them, and some of them are pictured in the second photograph of my slide show. The friends that I was averse to meeting are now like extended family to me, especially my closest friend Angela, who is shown in the fifth picture. In retrospect, I realize the narrow-mindedness I approached this change with. This move actually was the end of my life, beneficially. It was the end of my life as I had known it, which allowed me to evolve into the person that I am today. As I am beginning to find a direction in my life personally, educationally, and career-wise, I recognize the impact that this change had on my life, as well as how central a story it is to my background. By moving to New Jersey, I have also encountered several opportunities that I may not have had by living Florida, and attending Baruch for journalism is just one of them. Another opportunity that I had by living where I do now was obtaining a job at Mandee, a clothing store near my home. I included it in my slide show because I have worked there for two years and it swallows up most of my free time. It was my first job, and has helped teach me the value of hard work, which I translate into other aspects of my life.

Besides the aforementioned images that directly correlate to my personal life, I included two images referring to Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who is my favorite author. One of these images is a quote from his first novel, Player Piano, and it is as follows, “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” I included this because it accurately describes how I aspire to live my life — taking risks and engaging in new experiences, in order to continue to flourish as an individual.