November 2017 – Page 3 – First-Year Seminar FMA

Baruch Voices

I, Allen Light, went to Baruch Voices. It was entertaining. It is now Sunday, and I only remember four of the performances, so I would say that only four were memorable.

The first person that was memorable was the Asian male that talked about biting down on ‘juicy, tender’ pop eyes chicken in a tone that made clear that he was thinking about something a good deal more lewd than that.

The second person worth mentioning was a Black female, who talked about how people tended to judge her, before getting to know her. They saw her hair, which according her took two hours to do, and decided someone who spent so long working on her hair can’t be smart. They looked at how she dressed, and decided that she was a whore who had a sugar daddy (her point, not mine). She then went onto this awe inspiring tangent about how she was not average, and that “magnificence radiated off her skin.” I found this to be quite refreshing, because everyone else was there either to do a blog post, or to get something for their resume.

The third person worth noting was a second Black female, who talked about her hair. She remarked that all the models on T.V. had straight hair, so from a young age she tried to imitate them. It was a classic coming of age story. Hated something about herself that she couldn’t change. Tried very hard to fix said defect. Grew up and realized she was perfect just the way she was. She know has curly hair. After her performance I complimented her on it.

The final person worth noting was a new friend I made before the show. Her name is Abigail. She is a Caucasian female. Her monologue was about her life in upstate New York, and how much more exciting the city is.

Baruch Voices

Attending Baruch Voices made me realize how diverse Baruch College actually is. Listening to freshmen present their monologues proved not only to be entertaining, but also, it evidenced how so many students at Baruch have such different backgrounds. I think this is a mere reflection of the fact that we are in New York. The city is commonly know as a “melting pot” due to the presence of people from different backgrounds, with different cultures and values, and this was clearly shown in the short afternoon of presentations.

Despite the diversity, I also saw people with similar things going on. Selfies were being taken constantly, of course, due to the blog post. But still this didn’t distract the students from cheering on their peers just before they were about to recite their monologues on stage. Too bad our class had no representatives, because in the audience, we had numbers.

As opposed to the monologues heard in class, which were mainly about starting college, I liked how the students in Baruch voices focused on other subjects. Some of them were very personal, which is interesting because most people wouldn’t feel comfortable with sharing these to a room filled with strangers, and it definitely builds a relationship with the audience.

I think that the fact that the performers were all students contributed to an overall relaxed and casual event, rather than a boring and formal ceremony. Multiple raps were made, and most monologues were actually humorous, which made the presentations even more interesting and definitely requested the active participation of the audience. This also made time fly but, making it seem like we had only been sitting there for a few minutes, and not more than an hour.

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I was walking into the multi purpose room, but now I’m sure that it was much more that just writing a blog posts. I think that the event gave students the opportunity to speak what was on their mind, which is an excellent way of getting freshmen involved in college life.

Summing up, I would say that Baruch voices was a very interesting experience, full of excitement and emotion, and next year, even though I will not be required to attend to write my blog post for my first year seminar, I might still stop by to listen to some monologues and share a few laughs.

Baruch Voices

I attended Baruch Voices on Thursday, which was a performance of multiple monologues written by first-year seminar students. These monologues were the best from each FRO section. When I entered room 1-107, where the performances were taking place, I recognized other students from my freshman seminar class also present. In fact, the picture I shared is one I took with JJ, Ryan, and Ben who I share most of my classes with. After the majority of the seats were filled out, we were asked to swipe in and shortly afterwards the performances started. The very first monologue shared was by a Sikh American who shared his experiences about being judged and discriminated against. He mentioned about his treatment after 9/11 and even being called Osama. His monologue was very passionate and serious and he ended it with an encouragement for everybody to unity strongly and fight these problems. Belonging to a misunderstood minority myself, I was able to empathize with the message of his monologue. Many monologues were about starting college, some the first day of school. I could relate to all of them. Everyone seemed to share the same nervousness and anxiety about going to a new school with few acquaintances. My own monologue was about my feelings and rush on the first day of school. One student’s monologue was about coming to Baruch by himself. He said he was alone, as there was nobody else from his high school also attending Baruch. The word goodbye was mentioned numerous times throughout his monologue, as if to stress the student’s loneliness. He said college is a new journey, a new chapter in his life, similar to his first day of high school. He said he became a better individual by the end of high school, and hopefully the same will occur when college finishes. Overall, all the monologues shared were ones I could personally understand, as they were typical emotions and experiences of first year students at Baruch, or really any college. Attending Baruch Voices made me realize I actually am not alone and that everybody was just as lost as I was in the beginning of the year. I am glad I decided to attend Baruch Voices and learn about this connection we students have.