If you knew me 4 years back when I was starting high school I was a very different person. I was reserved and didn’t talk much because people found me weird and annoying. By the time senior year rolled around I realized you only get a chance at life once and I shouldn’t waste it. This made me come out of my shell. Now when you see me I’m probably always smiling and talking to people. I have a bad habit of randomly going up to people I don’t know and I’m always happy when people come to me because I’m very socially active you could say. Early on I realized living day to day gets quite repetitive and boring. Every morning getting up at the same time, not eating breakfast cause I don’t have time, getting to the train station, getting to school, same classes. The routine stuff became annoying and I decided early on that I don’t want to be the best at one thing, I’d rather be mediocre at everything because I wanted to try everything the world had to offer. So I began investing my life in trying new things. Stuff like fashion and hype don’t make sense to me, a lot of my friends are into sneakers and trends but I never understood the craze so I had to find other things to appease my mind. And so I began my quest of learning new things. I joined clubs and sports I never thought I’d do. I was scared of blood and needles so the best way to start off was to start donating blood 3 times a year. I realized that there are children who have needles going in them everyday in hospitals which they don’t have a choice about so I could handle it. I also had asthma so I joined track and lacrosse to prove to myself that it wouldn’t stop me. The scariest thing I’ve done is take my dads old Harley out of the garage and teach myself how to ride a motorcycle. This is one thing I recommend everyone to learn. The idea of going 90 mph on something that has 2 wheels with nothing in between you and the ground is an exhilarating feeling. Immediately after that I wanted to learn how to play the piano. At first I wanted to learn to try the violin but it is an expensive instrument so I had to buy an old keyboard instead. After learning how to ride a skateboard I begged my mom to teach me how to sew. My upcoming goals are language and learning how to cook. Something about language amazes me and I really love how different words can mean different things to different people. I know 4 languages Hindi, Urdu, English, and Punjabi. I took 5 years of Spanish and everytime I meet someone new I ask them to teach me at least a couple of phrases from their respective languages so this is why I know how to say things in Ukrainian, Arabic, and Malayalam. Cooking amazes me as well. Food that doesn’t go together per se but the idea that right amounts of little things can make the difference between a bad plate versus a five star dish. I have always wanted to be a chef but the idea was put down by my father who thought it was gay for a man to cook and said it was for women. That’s also what he said to me when I read a lot so he threw out all my books. I haven’t read a book since. It is why I am now taking Finance instead of doing what I love. It took awhile for me to figure out what I want to do after my dad wouldn’t allow a son of his to take culinary arts, but I thought since I’m a people person and I’m very hands on the best route would be business and maybe if I was successful enough I could open a restaurant.

I have never used resources before in my life. My ego just made me assume I can do everything on my own. College gave me a wake up call because I realized to be successful I have to use the resources around me that I am provided. I walked into STARR career center not knowing what it was or what to even ask really. I did some research on the website and walked into STARR. But the people there were very helpful. They showed me how i can search for internships as a student, and go to different career fairs. They showed me how STARR can help with career development and making decisions about majors. And aside from also helping with graduate and law school programs they also help preparing for internships and jobs. This was so crazy new to me, what other program would allow you to take out professional attire like suits for an interview, and even set up mock interviews for you to practice before the real one. I knew I would definitely be using STARR a lot. They offer assessment tools to gather information on values, skills, accomplishments, personality style, interests as well as other areas important to career development to assist you in major selection and career choice. This way people can make active choices in their careers by exploring and testing. The room for creative expression is also there with programs to make your own major and even crafting your own career.

A big problem for me was that I was a commuter to Baruch all the way from the city of Yonkers. This made very little time for me to be socially active since most of my day was the commute back and forth from school. Student life changed this for me. My friends told me to join them at the game room one day and I decided to go. I used to play pool back home so I rented a pool stick from student life. Immediately I saw how accepting and open everyone can be. It wasn’t difficult to make friends. And  even though I wasn’t amazing at pool nobody cared because we were all there to get to know each other not to show off. Before I knew it I was going to student life all the time to rent a pool stick or ping pong bats. Soon enough some of my good college friends were made sitting around in the game room just talking to people. And to think it all started with a pool stick! Aside from all this student life gave me information on club fairs and they informed me of a bunch of events I could go to. This is where I learned about the leadership bootcamp as well as Team Baruch.

I was a little nervous going into my first team Baruch info session meeting. But I had friends there who have been to previous meetings and told me that I’ll be fine. The Team Baruch training program is a dynamic developmental experience in which students are challenged to introspectively examine who they are as emerging leaders.My first impressions of the meeting was how great it was that the entire thing was mainly student organized. The authority figures of the team were all Baruch students, which means i could be up there one day! All in all I learned a lot about the club and its academics and the opportunity it provides to Baruch students. Along with Academics the team is very open and informative. It helps provide familiarity with the school and its events. Team Baruch is definitely something I plan on joining because of its focus in academics. It helps each individual along with each individual helping those around them. This adds a lot of help to leadership qualities. Successfully completing the training program enhances self-awareness, communication, interpersonal, conflict resolution and mediation skills. These are all important skills to have in an academic setting as well as later on in life. We also learn about team dynamics and how working within a high-function team can elicit positive social outcomes. I was very interested in joining Team Baruch because one of the potential positions are being a peer mentor and being an orientation leader. Before this semester I was very confused about college in general and these people made me understand it a lot more so I also want to help others academically in any way i can.