This week was an exciting one! Rebounding from last week’s homesickness I went into this week ready for anything life through at me. I aced a Music in Civilization test and a Calculus test! I just needed that little refresher this past weekend to get my head in the game. Friday, my day off, I went downtown and explored SoHo! Not being from New York to begin with it was crazy to see the number of shops, especially large speciality stores, in such an area. The only thing I wish would be to not be broke!

This week has been particularly difficult. Homesickness had gotten the best of me. I was constantly very sad and tired. Thankfully, my father asked me if I wanted to come home for the weekend because he knew that I was struggling. I hopped on a bus Thursday after class and I was on my way back to Pittsburgh. The weekend was refreshing. There were lots of reunions with friends home from school, and of course the biggest reunion with my huge family. It was great, and helped to get my head right for the challenging weeks coming up with midterms and everything. Sunday, I said bye to my family and headed back to the concrete jungle ready to tackle a new week.

This week has been nothing but exciting! I took part in one of the most important things in my opinion. I took my sign and my voice to the city council building for the Climate Change march! Civil issues of any kind rattle my teeth, and what bigger one than this! I was nothing but proud of myself for going alone (my friends wanted to go but they either had work or class) and for standing up for what I believe in. Coming from a small somewhat rural town in western Pennsylvania, many people, such as my parents, believe that we can have our concerns, but they should not be publicly voiced or marched for, your opinions are what voting is for. It was powerful, electrifying, to have millions of likeminded, empowered, and unstoppable people together fighting for a cause. It is something that I will never forget.

I was originally so hesitant on going to a career event. For some reason, as crazy as it sounds, I have become afraid of the possibilities my life has. Especially being at Baruch, it has been extremely challenging for me to determine a career path. Years ago I could not wait to start college to begin my first steps towards adulthood and a job. However, now it seems like my main concern. The idea of staying stationary, unchanging from my job, a sort of binding choice is the main issue I have. I have a problem being stationary physically, mentally, and socially for too long. Things tend to start to bore me. One of the majors that I have delved my curiosity into has been marketing. Thus, I went to the Marketing Career Expo! It’s somewhat funny, I had anxiety over figuring out my potential career, but no anxiety when talking to employers. To start, I know that a huge portion of Baruch students are marketing majors, and likely most would want to come to the career fair, so I knew I had to get there early. The line was so long, luckily I was there early enough to get in. I took the selfie in the hallway because I did not want to be unprofessional and take one in the room with the employers. There were over twenty companies present at the fair. I talked with a man from the New York Post about the job he was looking for. A position for someone to start a new advertising campaign for the paper. He then went on to explain the typical day of a person with that or a similar job position. Turns out, I really like it! With the possibilities to endlessly create ads, campaigns, sales projects, and other things I feel like it would be a perfect pitch for my personality!

Does anybody even really know what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Let alone how to start? Personally, I’m a dreamer. I have so many things that I want to accomplish and for some odd reason finance is at the heart of that? I’m sure at some point that’ll change whether it be 3 months from now to 3 years. Especially being at a CUNY school, it was hard for me to fathom the resources to work at great institutions that will value my identity and the things that I value. SO, since Baruch has oriented me, they’ve been marketing THE HELL out of the STARR center and I’m sure like 90% of first year seminar students end up there for their career related enrichments anyway so I went. I walked in completely clueless, per usual, but definitely held it together. I went by myself, and so I didn’t really ask questions although I wish I did because writing this would be much easier, but it was fairly busy so I didn’t want to intrude. I looked at the walls filled with pamphlets and how to’s, and even the bulletin board outside which I didn’t know would have job postings and internship opportunities for credit and even money. I was most intrigued, as a prospective Zicklin student, the business-y pamphlets. There are fellowships and internships for students like me at amazing institutions like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs which I had no idea about. It fits because this is New York, but still. I never thought that CUNY schools would have that much presence because the education is so inexpensive. I always thought that investment banks were checking for “prestigious” students, not lil old us, ya know? It actually comforted me because I was actually scared that because I’m getting a CUNY education is have to work a million times harder to get seen by these places.

For my last event to attend, it had to be student life related. To be completely honest, I looked forward to this category of events the least because to me CUNY schools are not going to be that fun being in NYC. NYC is only really fun of you’re over the legal drinking age. Any who, I was in a scram because per usual, I waited until last minute to complete the assignment. Had to do it Thursday because Friday I had no classes and had to go to work. One of the last events happening at Baruch prior to this assignment, and all of the other assignments deadlines was a luncheon held by a Christian group at Baruch, I forget the name. A sweet girl named Tony practically ran me over at the escalators telling me to go, thankfully and she probably doesn’t even know she saved me from a literal fail. I waited on the line for nearly 20 minutes after the event was supposed to start, and made small chit chat in line while I waited because I was by myself. Apparently, nearly any person I conversed with was a junior or senior and first of all, their skin care routines must be bomb because I thought we were all freshman and secondly, they were mad approachable. I made it very clear while checking in that I had no clue what I was doing and the girls were really sweet about it. They were really directional and made sure to keep the line moving despite the fact that I was lost. I got the chance to make a care package for the homeless, which I had completely forgotten about in my own first year college going through life madness. This is the time to give! In each care package, every student got the opportunity to write their very own note to the person who received it which I thought was cute. We all crave a human interaction and I think it’s important to give that to people who feel forgotten about. I went into the actual event and listened to a speaker, who helped humble me and gave me encouraging words to finish the semester as strong as I could. I listened to a praise song and even played human Bingo, a kid from my FYS class one the free metro card which was super dope. Unfortunately I had class and had to scram, and literally almost forgot to take a picture! The people I asked to take photos were super understanding once I explained what they were for because everyone just LOVES the requirements for FYS!!

and that’s all folks, see ya next time.

Even though this is the last weekly reflection it is not the last week of the semester. I read my first weekly reflection and I was saying how smooth the semester was going but I can see the change now. I swear I am getting grey hairs. Next semester I am going to do better because I am going to be dorming. Commute is 2 hours for me and I knock out when I get home so it seriously hurts my studying time. I hope next semester I feel the sense of balance I had.

You really can’t procrastinate in college. I don’t know how my friends part every week. I’ve been sick for a while so I wanted to take a day for myself, but that did not happen. Even though I was in the hospital I was still homework cause if something is due at a specific time it is due.  I put school and studying as my top priority so I had to cancel plans with family and take time off of work which sucks.

I took a math test today and I hope did good on it. Math is the hardest subject for me and my professor isnt the best so I’m in out and out of tutoring all the time. Most of my days are just going to class, commuting, studying and going to work. I am extremely tired all of time.

This week is really hard. We are in the middle on the semester so that means midterms!! I feel like I have been studying nonstop. Its really to hard to manage work school family life and social life. I have a presentation in communications due soon so I’ve made an appointment with the SACC tutoring center to get a letter grade higher.