Since being a student at Baruch, my live has become a lot more busy. I work full time at Starbucks and I am also a full time student. Last year I went to UAlbany, and living on campus, being 10 minutes or less away from my classes enabled me to have so much more sleep and relaxing time to myself. Being at Baruch, as a commuter, that is not possible, especially when I work after school on most days and don’t get home until almost 1am. Sometimes I miss the luxury of being able to wake up 10 minutes before class and throwing on some sweats and still being early to class. I love being a student at Baruch, I just need to adjust to it a little more, because I have no time to relax anymore.

My first 3 months at Baruch college has been a truly great experience. The first thing I wanted to do when I got into college was make some connections, which is exactly what I did. Although I didn’t hear about the club fair at the beginning of the year, I saw a flyer near the clubrooms for a club GIM named Ascend, Pan Asian Leaders. I had nothing to do during club hours so I  decided to go, on that same day, I joined the club and met a ton of people. After that, my social life and connections at Baruch just snowballed and now i’m connected to almost every club at Baruch! After learning about these clubs, I went to a lot of events a met a ton of professionals and I even learned about all the majors and the prospective careers that comes with it. All in all, I joined a club and from there on, my social life snowballed and I learned a lot.

My experience with shaman.

So in Ecuador, I met a shaman at a beach. I was on vacation with my cousins. The tide was really low, I remember,  so we could go pretty deep into the ocean. We went deep enough to stand over some coral-looking rock formations. It was pretty calm until I felt something slimy under my foot. I had just enough time time realize it was a stingray before it pricked me and swam off. The pain was minuscule at first but it became unbearable within a few minutes. It pricked me on my ankle but I felt the pain shoot up to my hips.

There were people telling me to go see this shaman that lived on the beach. I went to her and I told her It was a Stingray, I was sure of it. She started taking some string things and burned them underneath my foot. She did some weird chants, I was skeptical, I knew there was some logical explanation with that she was doing. The pain went away instantly and came back whenever I took my foot away from the flame. I met a nice British couple, the woman told me that her boyfriend was also bit and they too, visited the Shaman. This didn’t make me believe what the Shaman was doing was actually “magic.”

The pain finally subsided after 2 hours. When I was back home, I did some research. I found out that stingray venom is protein based, and it dies with heat. I was pretty happy to have proven the Shaman was a scam, although my friends seemed to believe in her.

We have all heard the same old cliché quotes about life. “Life is short, life is what you make of it, and it’s your life so do whatever makes you happy.” When you’re young and you hear these things, you take it for granted. I once believed I had my whole life ahead of me, however, time caught up to me. There are a number of things that I would like to accomplish, just as anyone else. Anyone can understand what it’s like to be burdened by self-doubt, hard work, and continuous sacrifices. To get what I want, college is just the beginning. This is my steppingstone for further advancement. Every step I take, every decision I make, and everything I choose to do from now on will either lead me closer to my dream or stray me away from it. So, until then I have a long way to go. In the end, things can go either one of two ways: I may come out victorious or stumble and fall to my failure. After all I have been through, and based on all that I know is ahead of me, I very much prefer the first option.

I love my little brothers. They are the best things that have ever happened to me. I have two brothers. One is 13 and the other is 9. I basically raised them because our parents were always working. I especially helped raise the 9 year old because I was older when he was born so I was able to do more for him. I would do anything for my brothers. I would keep their darkest secrets and never tell anyone. They both know that I am their big sister and even though I am not around as much as I used to be before, I am still behind them 100%. They know that they can come to me for anything, no matter what it is, I’ll do my best to help them. I love them both more than life. I even have a tattoo on my wrist to symbolize us as siblings. I look at this tattoo everyday when I think about them or when I miss them.

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Hunger:

I am so god damn hungry!

Not starving-African-child hungry, but hungry enough to make me angry. Come to think of it, before coming to Baruch I was never really the hungry-grumpy type, but then again it’s been a while since I’ve been told I couldn’t eat during class, almost 2 years ago back in high school to be exact.

What makes this type of hunger so intense is hard to tell. But what I’ve definitely noticed is that the more boring a class is, the more hungry and grumpy I get. For example, my math class can make me crave plain, stale, lettuce.

And the worst part of it all is that it’s a never ending cycle! The more hungry I get, the more grumpy I get, and the more grumpy I get, the more hungry I get!

So as of right now, and especially during math class, I feel like I’ll be hungry and grumpy for the rest of my life.

-A self portrait of me when I’m hungry, feeling like a grumpy old man.

Sneaker culture is a very interesting subject. The sneaker culture consists of anyone who has in interest in sneakers, weather it’s jordans, nike running shoes, or high end designer shoes like Maison Martin Margiella, everyone can find their place in the sneaker culture. Don’t believe me? I can prove it, tons of broke people wear expensive jordans, and tons of rich people wear nike running shoes. Unlike other cultures, the sneaker culture does not discriminate, everyone is invited, and everyone can find their place within it. I was first exposed to the sneaker culture when I purchased my first pair of jordans, which were the red bottom low jordan 11s, after that i started researching jordans and buying more sneakers and the rest is history. Even though I don’t buy as much Jordans anymore, i still like to keep up with the latest sneaker news and releases, and that is my place in the sneaker culture.

We need to protect polar bears. Polar bears live in the snow, and their homes are being destroyed by pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. The pollution of polar bears is at risk, and so are their homes. There could be a loss of two thirds of the entire polar bear population by the year 2050. It hurts me to think that governments are taking actions against climate change, and that endangerment is getting closer and closer for polar bears. Help keep our environment clean, support EPA, and make your voice heard. We want a cleaner and sustainable industry, so that polar bears have a place on this planet. A more protected environment is better for everyone.