This has been a relatively good week. A lot of the weeks are blending together now, but I’ve somewhat fallen into the routine. I’ve gotten used to the different paces of all of my classes. Some of my classes are really slow but others seem to go by really quickly, however, I don’t find the work difficult. The difficult part is finding time to juggle everything. My sociology class is somewhat difficult, but again it’s not the actual work. People in that class don’t really respect the professor and then just talk in class which is frustrating, especially since I sit in the back of the class. I can’t change those people but I started sitting in the front of my class even though it was away from my friends. I also decided to start studying for that class with some other students and my friends. However, I really enjoy college so far because I feel more independent and I like how quickly it moves.

I went to the STARR Center to receive help looking for jobs. I’ve been  looking recently, however not as seriously as I should be and I picked up some papers giving me information on things like how I should or could fix my resume, which I really found the most useful. I’ve also been meaning to go when my friend told me that she was applying for a job and that she wanted me to come with her. She also told me that I could probably apply to the same place and I did. They didn’t have time to interview us but they did take our resumes and gave us their card. I was happy that I finally at least applied for something. I’ve had jobs before but it was never really something I looked for myself. I get a lot of emails that have to do  with STARR or career events from Baruch, I just never seriously considered going to them. Going to the STARR Center was still nice though because I can be more familiar for the next time that I do actually go.

Enrichment Workshop Career 2

The club that I am leaning the most toward is WICC, or the West Indian Culture Club, and it is because I really like the events that they hold and how welcoming they are. I also find comfort in knowing that I can find a community of people from the African Diaspora, which I am most accustomed to. I enjoy meeting people of different cultures and backgrounds, but I like knowing that I can still stay true and find validation inside this group. One of their events that I went to was the “Who Am I?”, where we discussed the lives and roles of black people in our communities, in America, and other issues that only people from any part of the African Diaspora would face. I really like talking about issues that face the black community because it I like to know what people think, and, being apart of this community, I want to find ways to fix these problems,  whether it happens now or in another generation. I also just like having intellectual discussions with other people. It was interesting to see how people from the same walks of life or facing the same problems deal with those issues differently. It really opened my eyes to the views of people from the Caribbean, African countries, and even just the mid-West. I am pretty sure this is the club I am going to join.

Enrichment Workshop Student Life 2

My week has been really great. My sister is 6 months pregnant and I have been helping her with different tasks that she needs, like cleaning the cat box and other things. I am really excited to be an aunt, especially because this is going to be the first baby of the family. I got the gifts for the baby. I got a bath robe, a maternity bag for my sister, and a snowsuit for the baby. It was all kind of expensive but I don’t really mind because I know that it’s all worth it. My sister’s husband has a lot of sister’s and he’s the only boy, so I really want to make sure that the baby is around my family and my dad’s family, as much as she is around his.

I have been helping my mom with a basketball league she volunteers with. It is run by different drug treatment programs and one way they help recovering addicts is by letting them play basketball. Each program forms a basketball team and they compete against other teams from other programs. Then there are championship games and it continues until there is one team who won the most. After the league is done, there is an award ceremony and it is over until next year when it starts again. My job at the games used to be helping my mom set up the gym, meaning cleaning and pumping the basketballs, and controlling the scoreboard and books. Now, I am in control of doing the same things but I also control the music. The programs are filled with people who are usually 18-45 year old African American men and they listen to hip-hop and some of the same music I listen to, so I play music as well. I really like doing this and helping in any way I can. My mom pays me for it too.

This week, I have been struggling with my math class, and it’s not because the curriculum is hard, it’s because my sleep schedule is off and my math class starts at 7:50 am on Mondays. I also live in the Bronx, so it is a long journey and there have been times when I missed my stop on the train because I fell asleep. I started leaving earlier which helps, and luckily my professor doesn’t do roll call and she passes around the attendance, which I know won’t always be the case. I am doing well in her class though. I get good grades on the weekly tests and I also feel comfortable in participating as well. My other classes are actually not too bad either. My favorite class so far is Public Affairs because it’s basically a history class and the professor keeps the discussion somewhat open, despite it being a lecture. I was expecting lectures to be very boring and long, but thankfully I find this one to be very interesting, and depending on how the rest of this class goes, I was considering looking into Public Affairs as a possible major.

This week I didn’t do much. I’ve been trying to find a way to balance time between my friends, school, and personal time, and it usually seems like I spend too much time doing one thing. There’s been times when I’ve spent majority of my day with my friends and we’ve stayed out goofing around until almost 9 at night, and although it is fun and my friends are great, I regret doing that instead of studying or going home to do homework. So far it hasn’t really effected my grades, but I want to find the balance sooner rather than later. Recently, I have been hanging out more and more in the Caribbean Students Alliance (CSA) club room, which has been really helpful for me, seeing people who have had the same or similar experiences as me. I like meeting people from different backgrounds or cultures than me, but it is comforting to see someone who can understand my experience at Baruch as a person of color. They’ve so far helped me with finding places and apps fro cheaper food, because as good as the food down here is, I don’t want to spend $10 or more everyday. So now I use this new app that has dollar lunch everyday for two weeks. If you want more information, let me know and I can send you an invite for it! I have been struggling in my sociology class because some of my classmates talk a lot and it’s really annoying, but the professor also talks really lowly. I would love to sit closer but the seats up front are usually taken by the time I get there. To help with this, my friend and I have a group chat where we ask questions and everything and it’s worked so far.

Last week, my friends and I went to the Museum of Natural History. I’ve personally always loved that museum and it was always my favorite one to go to, especially for school trips. My favorite and best subject in school was history, so going to the museum wasn’t boring for me like it was for everyone else. When my friends and I went, we didn’t get to stay for long because my friends still had class so we organized which sections to go to. We visited the Biodiversity and Environmental Halls, the Fossil Halls, and the Human Origins and Cultural Halls. I personally liked the Human Origins and Cultural Halls the most. I learned about the roles that people played in Native American cultures and societies. I also learned more about the drastic change after the English colonized and that part of the culture that did survive became somewhat westernized. I also learned about different African cultures and the different figures that existed, not just in the religion, but that were also apart of different cultures, and the different representations, roles, and authority that those figures held. It was also very interesting going to the museum with my friends. Usually I go with my mom or with a school and I pay more attention. Going with my friends this time was very distracting, especially because it was a large group of us so some of us got lost easily. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed being in the museum and learning more about experiences other than my own.

My friends and I at the museum