My First Semester

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

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