This picture represents how I view “salty” people. “Salty” is a slang term that is often replaced with being bitter. In this picture an old lady is licking a Popsicle, which as we all know comes in numerous flavors. This Popsicle, which had the opportunity to be sweet or savory, decided to be the salty flavor and the old lady is bewildered! She is wondering why this usually sweet and tasty delectable is her least favorite flavor, which represents my view on my salty peers. Often on my daily encounters I come across an instance where someone is salty. I often wonder why, in that encounter, the person chose to be salty; he could have been swag or fleek, but alas, he was salty.

This meme is a representation of my procrastination during the semester. For instance, this assignment is due at 10PM Tues. Nov. 25 and I started it at 8:15PM on the due day. Although I enjoyed my first three months here at Baruch, the amount of work from classes was overwhelming at times. I attended a private, Catholic high school that was not so demanding, so this semester has thrown some curveballs; whether it was reading a chapter a night in history, or doing a lot of questions on WebAssign and then even more questions for extra credit in math. Trying to handle with this transition, I procrastinated, thinking it was the right thing to do, for some strange reason. Although I regretted this decision at times, I do not see myself changing my ways in the future.

There is a saying that refers to the idea that we gain wisdom over time. It is by this idea that procrastination is in fact useful. With every passing days, hours, and minutes, I become wiser, and this new wisdom I can make a large difference between knowing what I want to write and not knowing what I want to write. This is why I prefer to take my time when assigned tasks; I am giving myself extra time to think about how I want to go about completing my task. With all this time to think about it and forget about my many ideas, I feel more comfortable with my completed assignment. I am aware that this may not be the best approach to my studies but it has gotten me this far and I don’t plan on stopping.

Distractions have affected me throughout my whole educational career. They would creep up on me while I try to study or while I’m trying to get things accomplished. I would tell myself that I would study the next day but by the end of that day, I probably only got an hour of studying done. The smallest things like what someone posted would always distract me. Another distraction would be my open laptop that has my favorite games on them. Every time I study for a bit, I would tell myself that I’m taking a small break which leads to the morning turning into the afternoon. This also happens with homework, which leads to tremendous procrastination. I really hate leaving homework until the last minute but with so much going on everyday, it always ends up being the last thing I do. Luckily, it’s never late, but with all these distractions, that might turn into the next step. The worst distraction of my life is League of Legends. In this game, every round takes around 30 – 45 minutes to finish. Just playing a few games would turn a Monday into a Friday which leads to nothing being accomplished.

This meme represents procrastination which I have picked up on since the sophomore year of high school. Even though we have more free time now, I still do not like doing assignment ahead of near due date. It’s a really bad habit that I have to correct since I would normally not have time to do anything else and actually ending up spending more time on the assignment then I initially had planned. It’s also bad for my sleeping pattern. I would stay up finishing assignments instead of getting enough sleep then the next day I nap so I lose out on more time of doing homework. This ends up in a never ending cycle. Also, inadequate sleeping time makes me want to sleep in class which I do for Political Science and sometimes for Philosophy.
Procrastinating for papers also mean I procrastinate studying for exams. That results in the same sleeping problems but lowers my grade in exam as well. I also want to join clubs but I have to study during club hours instead since I don’t have enough time to study at home due to procrastinating.
I hope to get rid of the habit before the next semester. Starting my major would require me to spend more time studying outside of class instead of in class so I hope to spend those time when I’m supposed to be studying/learning doing nothing productive.
All in all, procrastinating is bad for me since I want high grades. Higher grades are not achieved by only listening in class. College gives me free time that I did not have in high school so I can study so I need to take advantage of that. The overall way I’m focusing on getting rid of this habit is not taking naps so I can sleep on time and not stay up late. I don’t see myself achieving this anytime soon but hopefully before I start courses on my career.

The meme I chose to describe my time at Baruch so far was one that describes the types of professors I have. In high school, most notes that I had to copy or write down were written on the board and the teacher would orate them, which gave me time to write. In college it is different. Some teachers write down notes but most notes don’t even make sense. The notes are more like their own personal notes, meaning they are choppy and not developed. You copy them down and understand them at the moment and you think you will know what the professor meant by his or her notes but when you go home to review the notes they look like they were written in a different language. Meanwhile I have other teachers that know their subject so well that the whole class consists of them speaking. At this point, all hell breaks loose as students pen page after page of notes, trying to catch everything important the teacher says but forgetting half the stuff. This has happened to me a countless number of times. I go to write down something important the teacher said and while I’m writing the important thing, the teacher starts saying something else and I lose my train of thought and forget what I was supposed to write.

At the same time the teacher tells you to know certain things on the test but they say it so fast that you don’t even catch what they said and then you struggle during study time. It probably gets annoying for the person next to you because you keep asking them what the teacher said over and over again. I feel that all professors should put their notes online so that studying and reviewing is a lot easier and clearer. Plus if a student misses a day of class, he or she wouldn’t have to ask other people for the notes because they would be readily available online. So going back to the meme, I know a professor has a lot to go through in one class period since classes don’t meet everyday but they could honestly speak a bit slower.

Some of my friends told me that their teachers tell them “don’t worry it is in the textbook” if they tell the professor they didn’t catch something. The funny part is that the information is not in the textbook. This makes things so much more complicated for no reason. I hope I get better at taking faster notes because I know the professors won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Or I hope I start to realize which notes to copy and which notes I can get by without knowing because I have a lot of “useless” stuff that doesn’t even pertain to the topic we are learning or taking a test on. I’m pretty sure other people would agree with me on this topic and hopefully we all get better at this because we have three more years of this to go through.

 (Source: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy04ZGM3NmE0MjZlMjlkODRh)

So, as this meme suggests, I am a mighty procrastinator. It is a problem that I deal with on a daily basis. In fact, I am dealing with it right now by putting off an overdue assignment and lots of studying. One reason why I procrastinate is because I have a weak and lazy work ethic. It’s not that I wasn’t disciplined hard enough — it’s that I choose to take the “easy” path. Anything that requires more than minimum effort repels me, which is really bad. Another reason why I do everything so last-minute is because of my deep-rooted mantra, “I still have time.” The last excuse I can probably give pertaining to my procrastination is that I tend to work better under pressure. I end up starting and finishing homework and papers a few hours or even minutes before I’m supposed to hand them in. For exams, I end up only “studying” the day I have to take them. What results from these three things is a very stressed out person getting little-to-no sleep most of the time. During my freshman fall semester, I told myself to break my terrible habit. It worked for about a week, but then I stopped progressing. This hit me slowly at first, because my grades didn’t show much of a difference between staying on top of things and procrastinating. But after two months passed, I realized that the “warning sign” I was waiting for never came, and realized that the damage had already been done. My grades suffered because of my immature and naïve mindset. So now, I’m nearing the end of my first semester (supposedly one of the easiest semesters at college) with sub-par grades that will haunt me for the next four years. Although I was secretly proud of my procrastinating-induced accomplishments in high school, I am now ashamed of my behavior in college. If I continue on this rickety bridge, I will probably fall off and not be able to recover. I have already accepted that my dream of achieving at least a 3.0 GPA might be unattainable at this point.

This meme is typically making fun of kids who treat college the same as High School. College lets students have more freedom. Missing class or showing up late is not that big of a deal even without a legitimate excuse. If you wanted to miss class in High School, it was frowned upon if you did not show up the next day with a note.

College is very fun for me because there is more time to be independent. It is almost like a recreation center in a way if you take away the classes. Baruch has a ton of activities including diverse clubs, a game room, a pool, and a gym. Most of my mornings are spent going to the gym as a way to stay motivated. Without it, I would be very lazy just like I was during my four years at Bronxville High. It also acts as a way for me to stay out of boredom and build up strength.

Managing my time well has helped my academic work load balance out between my job and having free time. Of course, there is a lot of work compared to senior year of high school, but I am able to work well under pressure and time constraints. Seniors typically slack off once they get accepted into college. Fortunately, when August rolled around, I was able to get back into the zone of having an organized schedule that I could use to get me through the week. Rather than not doing anything at all, I was able to use my organization skills to my advantage as a way of completing school related tasks everyday.

Every procrastinator can relate to this meme. Whenever a teacher in high school or a professor in college assigned an essay or project, I would almost always leave it until the day before to begin and attempt to finish it. Yes, I know it is not an efficient way of working to my full potential, but I value my time. I believe that time is the most expensive thing that can’t ever be replaced because once it’s wasted, it’s gone. Many young people would agree with the meme because they would much rather go to a party and have a good time than sit at a desk and think of a critical and analytical way of approaching and doing an assignment.

However, having fun may not always be the reason why students do not finish their work earlier than the day before the assignment is due. As students, we take more than one class, thus, the possibility of receiving a copious amount of assignments is extremely high. Time management is a crucial factor in how and when assignments are done. Hence, even the smartest and most organized students can relate to this meme. It would be inhumane for individuals to finish about 5 different assignments, at least, efficiently in a short period of time.

The rate of difficulty of the assignment can be a factor for stalling the assignment. Students have a variety of classes that range from the easiest to the hardest. Receiving an assignment from your easiest class would make one take it almost as a joke, like “psh, is this guy serious?” Personally, I’ve said that many times for SPECIFIC classes. Those assignments from the easiest class may be held until the day before to start because of how easy the task for the essay or project is. In high school, my music teacher gave us a “FINAL” to write our own piece of music. Well sure, I thought sarcastically. Time to bring out the Mozart in me. My music piece was not written the day before, but instead the day of music class. Luckily, it was last period so I had the entire lunch period to collaborate with my fellow “composers” on different ideas and how I should approach my piece. Turns out, I got a 93 on the piece and passed the class. I don’t remember what I ate for lunch, but I do remember that that was a good day.

In conclusion, time is the most valuable thing you can give anything and anyone. That’s why when people “waste” their time on certain things, they feel sad or upset. However, everyday is a new lesson and giving up your time on anything is valuable itself because of the knowledge gained through it. Similar to the concept of either going out to party or sitting at a desk and looking at your computer screen, there will be a lesson learned with each decision. If someone chooses to party, they either learn that they’re a party animal and keep it up, or settle down and rethink their lifestyle. But if the person chooses to stay home and do their work, then they learn the essence of education and how important it is to keep money in your wallet instead of “wasting” that at the party too.