Monthly Archives: April 2013

Today, I found out I won’t be achieving my dream.

I failed my math exam. I’d be surprised if I scored any points at all. I haven’t checked my score, but I received the “you’re a dummy” paper, saying that maybe, just maybe, it would be in my best interest to drop the class. Better luck next time, champ. With the failure, my chances of getting an A in the course are pretty much gone. And with the end of my A in math goes the end of my hopes for straight As, and a transfer to Columbia University sometime next year.

My dream was to transfer to Columbia after achieving a 4.0 GPA in my first year at Baruch and acing the SATs. Of course, I’d need even more than just straight As, as transferring to that particular Ivy League school is even more difficult than being directly admitted there, but that was the bare minimum I’d need to be considered. Now, I’ve got no shot.

I’m not an idiot; I don’t even dislike math. I just seem to put every single other thing possible before doing my schoolwork and other necessary things. I watch anime and Family Guy on YouTube, I play games on my PC, and I have a Facebook addiction that’s out of this world. If I would have spent half the time on math that I’d spent doing other things this weekend, I would have scored 200% on that test.

Honestly, it’s not even worth it; my internet addiction, I mean. None of the stuff I do here brings me any closer to my goals. I have 2 Facebook accounts with about 150 “friends” between them that I barely know, and who barely bother to reply to the things I post most times. What’s the point? I keep asking myself that question, but I never get an answer.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking down on Baruch by coveting a Columbia degree. Honestly, I didn’t even think I would have been accepted at Baruch until the day I recieved that letter in the mail. To be honest, I even think the education I’d recieve at Baruch would be comparable (hey, math is math, regardless where you learn it), but the prestige… the prestige of an Ivy League school is what I need. I have a lot of potential that I’ve neglected for a long time, and I’m ready to see how far it will take me. A prestigious degree will help me along the way immeasurably.

So, I have to make a change. I’m not going to get anywhere doing the things I’ve been doing. I’m going to quit the bullshit, cold turkey, right now. No more Facebook, no more anime and video game binges, no more. It’s time to focus.

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.