Freshman Seminar Motherblog – Spring 2013

My Playlist

I’ve decided to use a playlist to describe myself. Before I do that I’m going to provide you with a little bit of an outline of myself. I like to think of myself as a likeable person. When I meet new people I tend to be shy and reserved around them. However once I get to know them I am completely the opposite. That’s when I turn loud and tend to be more confident, and honestly make a fool out of myself and friends in public (in a humorous way though ). It makes sense to me, when you trust people you act like yourself around them, when you’ve just met them you have no idea what’s going through their head and what they think of you.  I actually (like most people) enjoy attention. Most people have told me I’m quite a funny guy, you wouldn’t know it if you met me at first, but I’m HILARIOUS.

I tend to play down my personality when I first meet people to shield myself from judgement, YES I came from a ruthless small town where everyone knew everyone else’s business.

ANYWAY… Here’s my playlist.

1.) The first song “Sweaty”, I chose because I love the beat of it, and I love Electronic music. It reminds me of just having crazy fun with friends, living in the moment. A typical night out really. Yes a night out, the drinking age is 18 in South Africa. 21 is just ridiculous!

2.) The second song “Float” is calm and relaxing and I LOVE the vocals. This song is very soothing. I chose this to show the laid back part of my personality. I’m a very open minded, caring, relaxed person.

3.) My third song “Barbra Streisand”, most people know it’s a dance song, that just repeats “Barbra Streisand” over and over again. This song is for the outgoing, sometimes silly part of my personality, when I don’t care what anyone thinks because I’m having fun.

4.) My fourth song, “Shove It”, I chose for the part of me that dislikes people who hate others for no particular reason other than lack of understanding. I try not to judge other people because if you haven’t gone through what that person is experiencing, you cannot judge them – in most cases.

5.) My Fifth song, “Pass Out”. Is for the part of me that sometimes gets out of control. Not a particularly good part of my personality. I mean at age 14 I was completely out of control.

6.) My sixth song, “Fireworks”. I chose for love really, I’m quite the hopeless romantic, even though I haven’t found love yet. It’s more about the complications of love.

7.) My seventh song, “Crystalised”. Is for sadness, there have been certain points in my life where I have just not been in a good place emotionally. Really difficult times.

8.) My eighth song “Suburbia”. It’s exactly that suburbia, this is for my escape from suburbia. The exact reason I moved to the big apple. RELIEF!

9.) My ninth song “Naked Kids”, reminds me of all the fun times I have with friends when I just act like myself.

10.) The tenth song is just catchy, deal with it.

http://8tracks.com/purpl3child/shaderra-s-mix

When presented with the question “who am I,” I thought long and about how I would describe myself. In a few words, I’m African american, tall, dark-skin, sarcastic, intelligent, a lover of cartoons, open-minded, caring, loyal, independent, and a believer in romantic love. So I’ve complied a mix of various audio from lyrics to movies quotes and even poetry readings, that I think express ideas I hold deeply or represent emotions and/or activities that make me who I am. I hope you enjoy the little peak into my psyche, and please disregard the occasional foul word.

My name is Clarissa Polanco, I am eighteen years old and I’m a freshman at Baruch for the spring semester. I do not know what I would like to major in as of right now but I’m good at math so I’m thinking about accounting. I graduated valedictorian of my class from Talent Unlimited High School, a performing arts high school in which I was a vocal major. I was really passionate about singing and still am but I’m extremely shy. I was part of the JREC basketball time for three years, from my sophomore year up until my senior year. My senior year I became the captain of the team and I went from being a bench warmer to a starter. On the team I also learned how to make a layup and how to shoot foul shots as well as form and defense. My experience on the team was amazing, I never knew I could have so much fun playing and learning a sport. I made a lot of friends including my Coach and I had a ton of fun. I was born and raised in Sherman by Dyckman and Inwood (207) surrounded by some family but I moved four years ago to Washington Heights. My parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. in search of the American dream so my native language is Spanish although my older brother and I were both born in New York. I love meeting new people, learning and having a good time. I’m also really looking forward to my college life at Baruch. Go Bearcats! 🙂 I’ve created a slide show presentation with images that I found, first of all that were cute and secondly that really show who I am. Well actually who I’ve become during these eighteen years. Hope you all like it! ME!

Playlist = http://grooveshark.com/playlist/FROS13+DTD/83273812

So the songs from my playlist are basically exclusively HipHop music mostly because i can relate to it the most. Growing up in Harlem, its almost expected as it goes with my whole background. Listening to HipHop, playing basketball and being into sneakers is pretty much the stereotype that describes me. My favorite artists are Lil Wayne, Vado, Juelz Santana and Big Sean. Oh and Camron of course. Favorite players in basketball are Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. And when it comes to sneakers im just an anti-hypebeast, i like sneakers that are just different, i cant stand wearing the same sneakers that someone else in the room is wearing.

Going a bit deeper, im just a “regular” 18 year old kid. Not anywhere close to being an adult because that requires wayyyyyy too much responsibility, im all about having fun and just living life on cruise control. Not really sure what i want to major in but im thinking i wanna go into Accountancy.

-Rodney McCullough

My Playlist

To be honest, there is only one song in my playlist that I can actually identify with. But, I do identify with the other songs in my playlist in a very different sense. I can identify with the diversity of my musical selections and overall preference; as I do consider diversity and individualism essential to my personality. I appreciate the creativity, thought, authenticity and story in each song. For this assignment, I specifically chose mostly instrumentals because I believe the instrumentals themselves are beautifully rhythmically composed and that they best reflect me, without the bindings of lyrics. But the fact of the matter is, it’s almost impossible to even get a glimpse of who I am through only ten songs, but it’s a starting point, right?

I chose the song Fancy by Drake to be the song that best captures who I am. What I like most about the song is that the idea of being “fancy” doesn’t only refer to looks or physical appearance, but also entails a great deal of responsibility, confidence, poise, independence and intelligence – and with that said, I do consider myself very fancy.
Fancy by Drake is, without a doubt, my theme song.

The next proceeding six songs really capture my personality instrumentally. If you listen to the music, you can form a pattern between each of these songs: energetic, fun, confident, and outgoing – which pretty much sums up my personality. I consider myself a cool person with a unique form of outgoingness and style. I also believe that confidence is the key to success. Confidence can be defined in several ways, however, in my opinion, I feel that poise is a necessity for confidence. This is essential to whom I am as an individual, and again, this connection between confidence and poise can be defined as a means of being “fancy” – just in case you didn’t make that connection!

The last three songs reflect yet another different side of me; I have a fondness for folk music and classical music. These songs speak for the softer side of my personality – a side of rationalizing, thought, and free-spirited creativity. I personally think these songs possess a different beauty that often goes overlooked. Although I don’t literally relate to these songs, I can identify with the calmness, serenity and type of “raw” beauty or attractiveness within each.

To sum everything up, I am a very fun, outgoing individual, but I am incomplete without a constant craving for sophistication, knowledge and individualism (:

Who am I? This question is not easy to answer. Mainly because the answer is always changing. Who knew such a simply question could yield such a complicated answer. How could it not? We are complicated people.  I am still trying to figure out the answer myself. I can probably tell you who I think I am but still I am not completely sure.

These general pictures you see below are found on the internet. You won’t be able to see me visually in the pictures but should be able to understand what I use to to do and who I am.

http://goo.gl/EqNPi

When I was a little teeny kid I was involved in many different activities. I particular had an interest in tennis and football. I joined the football and tennis team at my school. I spent months in both and soon realized I didn’t like football as much I did tennis. I learned that football was too rough and it involved working with others. On the other hand, I became really involved with tennis. I guess it was because there wasn’t so much contact involved nor were there any teammates to worry about. I learned that I was a person that liked to work by myself and at my own pace. It wasn’t until I met Mr. Group Project in school. I was then forced to learn to work with other students.

I have been playing chess since I was five and over the years I have gotten really good at playing it…winning many tournaments around the country. I have learned that I have the ability to focus not only on the board but also with my school work. I can sit hour on end focusing on a task or problem without getting up or being distracted. From this I learned how to become patient, think analytically and to approach matters realistically.

I realized several years into grade school that I liked math and science. I noticed that I approached life in a very logical and analytic way. I didn’t know how to be creative. You’re probably wondering how does one not know how to be creative. But I had a hard time expressing myself and so I took up piano. I took a music theory class and many piano lessons. I learned how to express myself not in words but through music.

I am a organized person. I like to be neat. I follow my parents advice- clean as you go. I am person that I will leave something the way I saw it. I am someone who will get things done as soon as possible.

I am optimistic. I help people mostly because I expect to be helped in return.

I am shy and quite. I am tend to approach situations in a calm and reserved manner.

I spend a lot time thinking…I know how hard can that be! I think about life. What about life? Why am I here, what I need to do here, and what is my goal. I think a lot to remind myself that there is a reason why I am here and that I need to focus and not to get side tracked but at the same time enjoy my time wherever I am.

I am friendly..I don’t bite! I like to make friends…well who doesn’t? I am a person who won’t walk up to you unless I’ve seen you before, somewhere else. I will socialize if I know you. I just like to hang out with people.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/HW/83221307

The reasons I choose these songs is because I like edm, idm, trance, progressive, and house music  and frankly I can give two shits about mainstream music, such as rap and hip-hop. The first song I picked is call You All Everybody by Driveshaft, its not a real song and they’re not a real bad, and the reason I chose it is because its from one of my favorite shows, Lost, and it might seem like a stupid song but since they play that song every other episode it gets stuck in the viewers head and becomes addicting; which might come across as having an addicting personality which explains my addiction to cigarettes and alcohol. The rest of the songs go under one of the EDM genres, whether its trance, techno, house, or idm. I like songs without words because a song doesn’t need to have words in order to describe what the artist is trying to portray. Sometimes the beat of a song will speak louder than words. In life, I believe that sometimes you just want to hear background “noise”  rather than someone’s voice. And that’s why I like wordless songs because people piss me off and I rather listen to music than hear a person talk. The last song is called Molly. Now I picked this song because whenever I go to a concert, my friend, Molly, makes everything seem better than it actually is.

Hey guys, so i basically created a video explaining who i am and my hobbies. As you can see i enjoy sports and especially baseball. I hope to get into the Zickin school of business here at Baruch college. I like Hooka, drinking, chilling out and having a good time. I am a simple man who just likes to chill play sports and have a good time. I hope you guys all enjoyed my video. Have a good day.

Due 2/26. Minimum word limit is 250.

Please write a blog post that tells how you felt after reading the other blogs posted by your fellow classmates.

some of the questions you could answer are:
What new things did I learn?
What similarities did I find?
What was surprising about the blogs?

But you do not have to limit yourself to talking about these three topics.

have fun with it!

-Jori