Monthly Archives: April 2013

The health and wellness workshop we visited was both informative and interesting. I enjoyed learning the different types of strategies in order to live a less stressful and joyful lifestyle. On the other hand, as I mentioned in my monologue I am the least stressful person and find nothing serious so this workshop did not really persuade me to change anything about my life, just informed me on ways to be less stressful. I did however love the stress ball they gave us and although it is supposed to be used for squeezing and releasing stress, I enjoyed bouncing it around the remainder of the day. I love being calm and stress free so this was a very easy workshop to relate to however I did not enjoy the meditating. This is solely because all the times in my childhood where a speaker would come in and promote meditating and show how to do it, I personally never found any change before and after doing it. Meditation, for me personally, seems useless and I do not enjoy it in any way. I would much rather just stay stress free myself and remain calm then resort to ten minutes a day of sitting in silence and breathing. I did enjoy the hand exercises though because those actually felt good. Between the stress ball and the hand exercise’s, I think the workshop was well worth it and enjoyable.

Being an eighteen year old male with a sixteen year old mentality, entering a school where the average age is 23 seemed to be problematic. Nevertheless I entered Baruch the first day of the semester just being myself. All around me I saw classy, formal outfits and yet there was I, nice and comfortable in sweatpants. I was curious to see how my childish ways would conflict or interact with the adult mindsets of those around me. Although I wished to remain my immature self, early on I learned inside the classroom I would not be able to be myself. Out of shear routine from high school, I called my teacher Mrs., turning out to be my biggest mistake of college thus far. Judging solely by her response you would have thought I physically hit her. I went on to apologize and explained how I was fresh out of high school and would need to remember to say Professor as opposed to Mrs. She went on to say, “well I better learn quick if I wanted to last in college.” I found this response quite ridiculous and a little much. Either way I decided to make it second nature to never say anything less than Professor again. Although I am immature, I am an intelligent kid, just someone who wishes to never grow up. I treat every day of my life in a childish and fun-filled way. Never will you see me too serious, too sad, or disappointed in anyway. I love life and believe it is too short to be taken seriously. Although success is my number one goal in life I do not believe it she be chosen over the sacrifice of enjoyment and happiness. I have seen many students so far on campus dressed in three piece suits and look highly successful but quite frankly just look unhappy and way too stressed. To be totally honest even a month and a half into this semester I am still unclear how my classmates perceive me. Who knows whether they find me annoying, funny, interesting, weird, I really do not know. What I do know is I have had a blast my first semester and will continue being the easygoing, stress free yet hard worker I am and will continue to do my best in all academic classes.

Ashley Ward and a friend resolved to bring “Occupy Wall Street” to college campuses. They printed fliers, set up a Web site and blasted out e-mails. They told as many people as they could about their action plan. Occupy protests rapidly sprouted at other campuses: hundreds nationwide currently have or had some sort of Occupy-related activity going on. At Yale, a traditional feeder school for investment banks and hedge funds, students noisily protested a Morgan Stanley information session in the fall. Recruiting visits to Harvard, Princeton and Cornell have been similarly disrupted. Many of today’s new graduates find themselves heavily indebted, and to the same institutions that received multibillion-dollar bailouts in the financial crash. Median income is stagnant. Their public universities are underfinanced, and class sizes growing. College activists have linked these issues to broad critiques of the financial-political complex. Acts of protest have occurred nationwide for example Seattle Central Community Colleges found itself hosting not just protesting students but also Occupy Seattle campers who had been rousted from a downtown park. The problems that had riddled urban encampments found their way to the college site. Garbage accumulated. For their part, faculty members have largely supported the movement, participating in teach-ins and staging walkouts. After campus police at the University of California, Davis, doused students at a sit-in with pepper spray, it was the faculty association that called on the chancellor to resign. As Ericka Hoffman, 26, a junior at California State University, Bakersfield, and one of the organizers of Occupy Colleges mentioned, occupy protests at colleges provided a giddying sense of possibility. But the hardest battle, she believes, will be getting the political and financial masters of the universe to listen. I believe this article inspires leadership initiative, as students we should be supporting movements like these. A college diploma nowadays has become an expensive achievement to obtain, we are socialized to go to college, acquire loans, and try to prosper in an inflated economy, while there is economic inequality in society. As I student in high school I took leadership in a similar manner. In one of my groups, our budget was heavily cut; the group was called midnight run which feeds homeless people in Manhattan. In the previous years the school district would provide cans and food to donate but that year the school budget was focused on our new stadium. The funds to obtain food for the homeless were severely cut and we were told to find other means to feed people. As protest some friends and I placed posters all over campus highlighting this injustice and wrote to our board of directors until they listen. Our schools newspaper even wrote an article on our protest showing how bias the budget was being spent. With no option left the school provided more money to our club and a sense of pride emerged from all of us who spoke out to these injustices. Sometimes it really does take a small group of individuals to change an institution.

An average day

Today I woke up with the realization that my days had become repetitive. An average day now primarily consisted of school and work. I sat in my bed wondering where all the fun times had gone. Last summer alone I was traveling throughout Europe with all my closet friends. We didn’t have a care in a world other than figuring out how to get back after an excessive night of drinking. Just thinking about past memories I decided to change things up a bit, because well …. life is to short.

Normally I wake up at 6 am to make the long commute to school, it has taken some getting use to but almost mid way into the semester I can now wake up on time without cursing at my alarm clock. Since today was the day I was going to try new things I decided “ehh what the hell I’ll wake up at 7and be a little late to class. I figured I earned a small break. To my misfortune I woke up very late, but still to start the morning in a positive manner I didn’t let it bother me, I could always copy a classmates notes.

Once I arrived at Grand Central I figured “its not to cold outside”, maybe I should walk, after all I had already missed my first class. As I was walking down Lexington Avenue a homeless man began to follow me, trying to tell me about his love for bagels. ….. ok so maybe walking wasn’t the best idea. Still like my friend, Katie, says it’s at least a story you can tell, … a story huh? I just think she has really bad luck and maybe after years of friendship it’s starting to rub off on me. I finally make it class after a fast walk in order to lose the homeless loving bagel man.

Once I make it to campus I decide its best I study for my math test, I studied the night before but a little extra never hurt anyone. I look into my bag and I realize I forgot my notebook at home. Great. Normally I double check I have everything but since today was the day I would try new things I took my bag and went downstairs to enjoy a bowl of cereal as opposed to my usual on the go yogurt. The only redeeming aspect of this part of my day is that I’m very good at math, so no harm done I still A’s the test.

It’s not even noon and already things are going array. I’m now sitting in the library, laughing quietly to myself at how a small change in routine caused all this. This never happens to me, I’m always very organized … perhaps too organized; I seem to always have a plan even back up plans. Still like Katie says at least now I have a story to tell.

My name is Shane, I am an aspiring musician/music producer who makes electronic, rock, metal, and hip hop music. Music is the most important thing to me because I listen to it and write it everyday and I spend most of my time doing something music related. On the other hand, the least important thing to me is school because it takes away time that I could use for music, and I have to pay to go somewhere that will allow me to get a career that I don’t even really want to pursue. I have no time to excel in either school or music because they both take over each other and I can’t choose just one, and I feel eventually they will counter each other for so long I will go nowhere in life. Then there’s work, which also interferes with music but I need it to get money to survive and to buy music equipment, which I wouldn’t mind if the customers weren’t so !@#$ing annoying as !@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$. I should end this before it turns into a 10 page rant about foreigners who don’t know how to order food at my job.

Hi, I’m Rajbir. I’m a friendly person who just does not like to make the first move. But when you take a step forward and get to know me, trust me, I’m a really fun person to be with. I love dancing a lot ! Any opportunity I get, I just grab onto it. While I love dancing, i hate vegetables. Why does everything non tasty have to be so healthy? Well anyways, I identify myself as a daughter, sister, and best friend. But I play the role of a daughter and sister the most. My family always comes first. Every member of my family has done something for me, whether it be big or small, and I greatly appreciate them. The things I don’t appreciate are spiders. I’m really afraid of spiders. Even though the thought of them being in my house disgusts me, I do not like killing them. However, I do make other people kill them for me. The times that I feel empowered are when I pray. Praying really does make me happy. My personal motto is to never give up, no matter how many failures come your way. Our life would be boring if we did not have any failures. But when success comes knocking on our door, you’ll feel accomplished because you know you went through a lot. And my greatest accomplishment is to have made it this far in life.

I love museums and have learned to really appreciate art and cultural pieces of work. The museum was interesting because the whole museum seemed to be about Southern Asian culture and art. I loved the sanskrit writing and also the process on how they make statues.