While coming to Baruch all the way from Bangladesh, the most annoying thing I have had to do was to open my shoes and my belt to get through the Customs in the airports. Of course I understood the necessity of it, but annoyed nevertheless. I had to experience something similar while visiting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the Gold Vault tour; and just like in my journey to New York I was annoyed as hell.
Truth be told I was very psyched when I registered in the Baruch FES Federal Reserve Tour; more so because of the feeling of getting to dress up all professional. But God know how bored I was when the tour started and the tour guide was explaining all the boring details and history of the bank. But as time progressed things started to get more interesting. You know how they always show it in the movies, a large container full of money? Yeah, so they are all fake just like they are in the movies. Seeing all those money together sort of made my day a little better until I realized Oh! they are all fake.
Soon we moved onto E5, to the actual vault. E5 is one of the lowest and safest levels in the entire city. Its 80 feet below street level and 50 feet below sea-level, built right on top of the Manhattan bedrock. I could literally hear the subway trains whistling on top of my head. And if there is anything cooler than that, I guess that would be seeing a gold bar that is worth $640,000. And I saw more than hundreds or even thousands in a glance. I mean standing a few feet away from one of the world’s largest reserves, each unique but all containing the same component, 99.6% pure gold; sort of leaves you wide eyed for a few seconds.
When you think of it the way I do, all we take with us in the end is memories. And I might never make enough money to own one hundredth of the reserves I saw. But the fact that I saw this incredible and beautiful wealth that runs a huge proportion of the entire world, that stays with me till the end. And I guess that’s worth a lot to say the least.
Rounding it up, my annoyance while coming for Baruch all the way from Bangladesh disappeared, and so far seems to be one of the best cards life has dealt me with; and same goes for the Gold Vault tour experience. I guess my orientation leaders weren’t wrong when they asked us to go for every opportunity that peaks our interests, if not anything you’ll end up with memories worth saving for a lifetime.