Monthly Archives: March 2013

The health fair workshop I attended with my fellow classmates was fun and informative. They explained what exactly stress is, and introduced some ways of dealing with it. My peers and I were asked to fill out a questionnaire sheet, which estimated our stress level and risk for heart attacks. After doing the questionnaire, I found out that I was a type A2 person. This implicated that I am heading in the direction to being cardiac prone. When I saw this, I disagreed greatly. Not only did I disagree with the assumption that I was ‘highly stressed’ but also with some of the personalities that it listed for my type. Fears not performing well, little sense of humor, pessimistic attitude? No, No…this was definitely not describing me. When I looked over the Type B personality list I also saw that I had many of the qualities listed. Has fun while accomplishing tasks, finds pleasure in simple activities, good sense of humor, and optimistic in general…now this was definitely my kind of list. As the workshop progressed, I realized why my situation was different. The reason that I had many personalities of Type B but was listed in type A is because I do all of the activities the mentors spoke about. They explained that in order to lessen stress, we have to do activities such as yoga, meditation and writing a journal. These are all activities I currently do which allow me to deal with all forms of stress in my life. The workshop was fun and I especially loved the video where they explained meditation and inner peace by showing a clip from the movie, Kung Fu panda. I’m glad to know that I will be successful, since the questionnaire said type A tend to be more successful, and that I am taking the right precautious to deal with stress in my life.

College is one of the most stressful times of a person’s life. For a real career orientated person, getting good grades, attending classes and keeping personal life together might prove difficult. The pressure of advanced education sometimes cause health deterioration. To function effectively in college, it’s absolutely necessary for inner peace and a healthy, stress free body.

Our enrichment workshop on health and wellness pointed out some facts about stress and how we can avoid them. It also pointed out some assistance Baruch provides about relieving stress which most of us didn’t know. A key point about defeating stress is to have inner peace. Meditation is a good way to have inner piece, but as Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda says, some people achieve inner piece easily while for others, getting inner peace itself is a cause of stress.

Another easy way to relieve stress and achieve inner peace is yoga. People often think yoga as a complex form of exercise and refrain from it. In reality, yoga is a simple form of stretching and controlled breathing which can be done by almost anyone. A simple stretching of fingers or elbow and breathing slowly for a short time can effectively reduce stress within minutes. Getting a message is a good stress reliever as well as it relaxes the tensed muscles of the body. But for me, the best way to relieve stress is to have self-confidence and belief that no matter what obstacle life throws, one can overcome it.

As for me, I don’t let anything stress me out too much and I don’t leave work for the last moment. I already have inner peace and don’t need meditation for that. Although I stretch and exercise almost every morning, for me the best stress reliever is taking a hot shower or walking at night for an hour. I also drink a lot of water which helps me keep calm.

            I have an abominably bad eye for art and I never found the inner meaning that modern artists talk so much about. To me, modern art looks like a random show of color as if some 3 year old sprayed paint over a canvass. Probably for these reasons, The Sydney Mishkin Gallery is the first art gallery I ever visited in my life and if it wasn’t mandatory, I probably would never have gone there.

The only art I ever came in contact with is the drawings of the comics me and my friend created. The pictures in a comic are much more precise and the direct meaning is much more prominent than the inner meaning. When I visited the Mishkin gallery, the exhibition was on copies of Medieval Chinese paintings and  they made little sense to me. If I was there alone, most pictures wouldn’t make any sense to me but being part of the group and figuring out the hidden messages in each painting became a popular sport among the group.

A friend figured out that watching a painting up close and then watching it from far back creates a different image of the painting. More revelation can be found out when one observes the painting from distance. There was a painting of a Beduin riding his horse is the desert. Honestly. the picture baffled us all as we couldn’t figure out the difference between his torso, his horse and his limbs. However, after scrutinizing it over 10 minutes and having a heated debate  we came to the conclusion that the man is actually wearing a cloak which is flapping in the wind making him look like an illusion. I think the artist drew the picture in such a way to confuse viewers and later on muse over the answer they came up with.

Overall, the visit was fun. I’m not interested in art any more than I was before but the one hour I spent there with my friends was a good one, finding hidden clues in paintings and debating whose point is the more accurate (As Leanna said “I like this game”). After all, it’s still better than sitting in the library and staring blankly at the notes.

I wake up every Monday and Wednesday morning dreading the fact that I have to leave my bed.  My first class of the day has to be my worst class, sociology.  9:30 sharp, I have to be in class or I’ll be locked lock out.  It’s a horrible way to start the week, yet I drag my lifeless body out of bed.  I can’t shake the fact that sociology is completely useless for me.  I would rather take anthropology, a subject that would intrigue me.  The study of humans seems way interesting in my mind.  Baruch had other plans for me however.  I didn’t even get the option to switch classes.  I hate when I don’t have control over certain things, especially when it involved my future.  I don’t want to get a bad grade in that class.  I can’t get a bad grade, I need a good grade.  Hell, I’ll take a B-.  It’s stressful when you have a professor who’s so uncooperative.  I walk into the class and I’m in a third world country, an over exaggeration of course but nonetheless a real feeling.  She is the absolute ruler and we are her subjects.  Her word is not to be questioned it is law.   She is to be feared and revered.  God forbid I open my mouth to disagree with a statement or to explain something to another student.  I wonder if this is a healthy work environment.  By school standards is this a nurturing environment where I can grow and flourish?  I’m given material to read and memorize however, my professor doesn’t agree with some of it.  And I quote “the textbook is wrong, I don’t agree with it, I rather you use my definition” she said.  At that moment my face goes blank.  Thoughts of just walking out of the class go through my mind.  Why doesn’t she just write her own textbook?  Are you that full of yourself that you could openly disagree with accredited work?  What’s the point of us using it if she just going to say it wrong.  She’s been teaching for what she says 40 years, I think she could have written one.  I’ve had some tough teachers in the past, but this takes the cake.  I’ve heard that this is her last semester or year teaching.  God bless future student who will never know of this woman.  Somehow I’ll get through the class.  A few students have dropped the class; I often wonder it I should follow in their footsteps.  I don’t want to drop it but I think I should.  It poses a risk to my academic success.  I could always take it again, perhaps at another school.  I am thinking about transferring.  It might not be a requirement at a different school, yet I don’t know what to do.  I have till April 12th to make my decision.

What do I constantly think about? Being that I am nineteen, you might think my mind is filled with beautiful girls, getting wasted at wild parties, getting to work on time and miraculously finding a way to past the coming test. These are some of the thoughts that may fill an average teenager’s mind, but I am no average teen. I am a young billionaire. Please, do not mistake my words for idle talk or fictions of my imagination. The words I speak are true, and whether you believe it or not, it will happen. You see, the reason why I can stand here boldly, and say this to you, is because I crave success. I do not crave it like a person may crave sweets or sexual pleasure. No. I crave success like an asthmatic craves air to breath. I don’t think you heard me right. I said, I crave success like an asthmatic craves air to breath. Success is not something I merely seek to achieve; it is something I would die without. You can say I’m addicted. So addicted that I must read about success everyday. My long smoothly rolled blunt filled with sour Kush and purple haze……… is going on a website and reading about people who started from nothing, and became billionaires. I immerse myself in success, reading books like, “Think and grow rich,” “The secret,” and “The Master key.” I watch videos by people like Mark Cuban and Will Smith. I allow nothing, but positive thoughts to fill my mind. This may seem simple to you and you may wonder, what makes me think I’m so special. The reason why I’m special…is because I let nothing stop me from achieving my dreams. I am homeless, living under the mercy of a neighbor. There are days where I have filled my stomach, with the smell of the stores I pass on my way from school. I have spent countless nights sleeping on living room floors. I have walked for hours so that I could save a metro card in order to get to school. All the while I attend school everyday, dressed in my business attire, smiling happily from cheek to cheek. No one would ever suspect that this is the life I live. You would think that this would discourage me greatly. No. The life I live inspires me, it encourages me, it drives me. Being able to live at the lowest, and overcome it, has taught me that nothing is impossible, and that you can achieve your biggest dreams if you believe, and strive for it. Each day I wake up and smile, being thankful for the things I do have, because to me, I have plenty. I smile not only for today, but also for tomorrow, because I know it will be a better day. My situation is but a temporary circumstance that is preparing me for my bright future. This is why I will achieve success.