On Friday, October 2nd, I attended the Career Fair. First of all, I was not used to being on Baruch’s campus all day on a Friday, so that was strange. Not to mention, there were only a handful of freshmen who attended the Career Fair, me, Sabrina, and Deborah being the only ones in our block in attendance. As soon as I got to Baruch, I immediately noticed everyone was dressed to the nines in professional attire. So was I, but I just felt like I did not fit in. After spending 2 hours perfecting my resume in the library and printing out 10 copies, I finally got to the Career Fair. Right off the bat, I made the choice to not hold myself back and not be shy. I reminded myself I took the initiative, I was already there, so what did I have to lose? I went to almost every table in the 2 hours that I was there and talked and networked with all the business professionals and even ordinary salesmen. It surprised me how open and understanding some people were and how willing they were to answer all the questions I had. Others, on the other hand, for example Bloomberg, essentially laughed in my face for even considering coming to their table because they only accept applications from rising seniors. I was told I was ambitious for a freshman which was nice to hear. I even realized that I might want to go into the Peace Corps after graduation and I wouldn’t have figured that out if I hadn’t had a long conversation with the Peace Corps representative. Going to the Career Fair as a freshman opened my eyes to how many opportunities Baruch has for me in the future. I already put my email down and gave my resumes to various companies as well as held conversations with the representatives and exchanged contact information with them, so at least I know I left some kind of a lasting impression on them. It was intimidating, at first, but once you accepted the fact that everybody there is older and more qualified than you are, it is great. I am honestly so glad I went to the Career Fair as part of the Career Workshops.

I’ll be honest, at first, I completely hated Baruch.  I was completely miserable the first two weeks. The classes, the professors, and failing to make new  friends all discouraged me and made me question my decision to even come here. Not to mention, the almost 2 hour commute from Long Island every morning. I must say, however, it has progressively gotten better. Now I’m loving it here. I owe my newfound love of Baruch to this girl, one of the closest friends I’ve made so far, Sabrina. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have even considered applying to The 33rd Annual Baruch Leadership Weekend let alone get accepted to it. When I first heard about it, I was intimidated by the very idea of it. I mean, I’m the farthest thing from a leader and I was always very shy and afraid to speak my mind due to judgment from other people.  But when Sabrina told me she was applying for it, I figured why not? While filling out the application, I remember laughing at the fact that they wanted me to fill out my current leadership roles at Baruch when I had only been there two weeks, so I left that part blank and submitted it. I didn’t really think much of it at the time because I was highly skeptical I was going to get in but life has a way of surprising you sometimes. Needless to say, it came as a total shock to me when I got the acceptance email. I was so excited for this new experience! Just this Thursday, we had a mandatory orientation for Leadership Weekend (me and Sabrina are pictured at the event above). All I have to say is that I genuinely enjoyed it. Everyone, from the TEAM Baruch leaders to the directors of the programs to the fellow students, was so incredibly nice and friendly. The entire atmosphere of the room was unlike anything I had seen at Baruch in my short time here. We did so many fun activities, such as writing our signatures from both our dominant and non-dominant hand, discussing our individual strengths, and breaking the ice with the fellow students by “squading up”. I’m so glad I didn’t let my fear hold me back from joining this amazing event and I realized that if I hadn’t done it, I would be missing out on so many possible friendships and the chance to learn something about myself and my leadership qualities, which I didn’t think I had before today. I’m so excited for what the future holds for me at Baruch and the moral of the story is don’t let fear of judgement hold you back from doing anything you want in life. As the famous saying by Nike goes, JUST DO IT and don’t worry about what other people think. That’s not in the quote by Nike, by the way, it’s just my own little spin on it.