Hello everyone! Please turn in your assignment by posting it as a comment in response to this post. First click on the header “Me” to open the full post. Then press the “comment” button below to add your writing.
Since I have added you as a “Contributor,” your comments will not be public to the rest of the class until I press “Publish,” which I will not be doing for this assignment. If anything goes wrong, please email me to let me know and email me your written work as well. Looking forward to reading your writing!
Me, Derick Borbon
My name is Derick. I am currently 18 years old living in Brooklyn. I’m a man of few words, so this will be quick. I believe one of my talents is being able to condense various sentences into the fewest words possible. I’d describe myself as anxious and carefree. What I mean by that is that I’m usually nervous and tend to overthink, even over little things, but am now doing the best to be chill. I like spending time with my friends and family of course, but I enjoy my alone time. For hobbies, I play the drums ocassionally and watch tons of tv. If it’s on Netflix and has four stars or more, I’ve watched it.
My views on writing are pretty positive. It’s interesting to experience the development of a story or a paper. I only like to write when it’s a story, it’s a great way to present ideas and challenge the imagination. It’s one’s art with words. Now, writing research or informational papers is what I don’t enjoy. Theres no creativity there, it’s just a task you have to get over with. It’s also a task for those who have to read it. It’s a lose/lose situation, so why do it? I’ve done a couple of essays and papers, but have never written anything more than 3 pages before. Any assignment that requires more writing than that, I’m already scared of. I just don’t know what in the world can’t be explained in 3 pages. If you make the font small enough, it all fits in the 3 pages, I’m sure.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/derickborbon
Me, Christian Boyle
My name is Christian. I’ve lived in Ozone Park, Queens my entire life and I’ve never been good at writing about myself. I play a lot of video games and spend a lot of time out with my friends. I’ve also recently been getting back into going to the gym often, which I hope is a habit that lasts. I’d describe myself as quiet and absent-minded, but I’m definitely someone who enjoys a fun time. I spent most of my summer out and about with friends which was a good use of the time I had because many of them went away to college. I took a creative writing class in high school, which was a great experience and really helped to improve my writing. I’ve been told that I’m a pretty good writer, but I find it hard to judge myself so I’m not quite sure. I really like creative writing as I don’t generally feel like I get to express myself creatively very often. Trying to express creative ideas as eloquently as possible is an enjoyable challenge. I’m not a very big fan of research assignments, which is to say I pretty much hate them. Papers that are overly informational really feel like writing with all the joy sucked out of it. There is a noticeable difference between an assignment done from the heart and an assignment that is just done to get it over with. I’d like to read more but it’s difficult to find the motivation to do so.
Michael Fajardo-Criollo
Me, Joseph Kloper
I will start this with an introduction of myself. I am Joseph, but normally go by Joe. Upon meeting me the first thing you would probably notice is the striking resemblance to someone else, most likely my brother. I mention this because people tend to either be suprised or way too intrigued that we are actually triplets. I guess if I would react in a similar manner as our other brother doesn’t really look like us. Being a triplet has its advantages growing up, always someone to play sports with, and always getting help when needed. We were all similar yet different at the same time. We all had similar interest, but have different personalities. I would describe myself as conscientious when I am working, but I am a reserved and calm when I am put into a new environment. In addition, I care a lot about my friends and family and look to spend time with them as much as I can. My hobbies now consist of mostly watching more than playing sports, analyzing sports, and hanging out with my family. I also like to travel and explore different areas outside of New York, whether it was the rock formations in Sedona or the Vatican City in Rome. An image that would probably represent me is a baseball. It kind of hs a double meaning, as I love to experience playing and watching, nut it also symbolizes my family vacations, and the experiences with them.
Over the past two years at my high school, Maspeth High School, my thoughts on writing have vastly changed. I believe that writing, similarly to art, is a way to express one’s thoughts or beliefs. Not only writing, but with reading we could learn a lot about who we are, and how society has developed. My favorite assignments from high school, were writing papers using multiples texts to portray a theme. For example, using the text from Joyce Carol Oates, “Where are you going, Where have you been”, and the Bob Dylan song, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” to convey the theme of violence in growing up. I have a positive view on writing as it has helped me expand my knowledge and express my thoughts.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/members/32822/
If I were to describe myself it’d best start through the lens of others and how they view me. Through both middle and highschool I was never really a friend maker. People tended to gravitate toward me because to them, I was an approachable guy. My closest group of friends was culminated through basketball as everyday when possible we’d have outdoor recess. As friends by association they declared that I’d never really opened up to them or that I tended to alienate myself from the group. These comments from them were not entirely misguided as I did come off as cold every now and then. Around my sophomore year of highschool I realized that the time we spent together no longer held any meaning to me. Before when we would meet it’d be with a purpose; playing basketball at said place, exploring said part of the city, meeting said girls. Somewhere along the line they lost their sense of adventure and thus I lost my motivation to engage with them. Besides to me their personalities were rather twisted and these “friends” did not have my best interests even after I’d given them chance after another. I cast myself aside form the group and to me it was a necessary outcome for me to achieve happiness. Going to McDonald’s every day, losing money and talking of the same things over and over again wasn’t for me or anybody. I’ve always lived constantly judging myself and wondering if the position I’m in today would set me up for a better future. For that reason I choose the squid as the animal to represent me, like me it gets bored and begins thrill seeking either by learning a new skill or utilizing tools to aid its defenses. Similarly, like the squid I hope to be able to adapt and utilize new skills throughout life. These skills will serve to keep me safe from harm; understanding the world is my goal and any deception behind it. The ever-evolving invertebrate cannot stay stagnant but rather in motion moving its capacities forward and expanding its horizons. I dream of a world in which I have a place and have adapted to the point of general wisdom and have numerous skills. The vision is there but like the squid I’ve gotta apply myself first, a notion which is easier said than done.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/jeremymejia42/
Me, Brittany A Cevallos
My mom named me Brittany because she likes Britney Spears, and so I began the chain of names starting with “Br” among-st my siblings. My birthday is December 12th so hopefully I get hundreds of gifts. Not many people guess my ethnicity correct, mainly due to a culturally ambiguous name and my skin becoming a lot paler in the winter. I am Dominican and Puerto Rican, and even though I’m closer to my Dominican side of my family I look absolutely nothing like them so they make fun of me. I was the founder of the Art Club in my high school as well as a co-founder to the girls club they also had. I still don’t like my high school so I don’t mention it or the negative energy tied to it for the sake of my own health unless I’m asked.
English was actually not my first language even though now its my main language. When my parents were together I used to live in Puerto Rico with two dogs and went private school where they offered English as a secondary language. When they had split my mother, sister, and I came to New York. We were still young so luckily I was able to catch up on the English language, in elementary I was in ESL and struggled a bit. But eventually I moved into the top class of my middle school. My sophomore English honors class is what kicked off my education of English, I felt like that course was where I most developed. Afterwards my last two years were spent on two AP English classes. Overall I don’t feel completely content with my writing style because its difficult to convey my desired tone or “attitude” consistently through my text.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/members/32973/activity/
Me, Erica Fedukovitch
My name is Erica Fedukovitch. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in Gravesend, a small neighborhood in south Brooklyn. I was born to a Sicilian mother and an Argentinian father. My great-grandparents are Ukrainian and Belarusian, but immigrated to Argentina, hence why my last name has Slavic origins. I had a pretty normal childhood. For 13 years, I attended a small Catholic school in my neighborhood with the same 24 students in my class. My father was a professor, which allowed his schedule to be very flexible, so he raised me. From a young age, I would watch my father spend hours in a room he set up our home as a art studio. There, he taught me how to paint, sketch, and most importantly, write. I’m not very good at visual art, but my father instilled a passion for writing in me. He taught me how to write poetry, and although I cannot really spend that much time writing for fun anymore, he made writing easier and certainly more enjoyable for me. As I got older and had to invest my time into writing longer academic assignments, I did not mind it. In fact, I believe that writing comes naturally to me. In high school, I was enrolled in a program called AP Capstone. During the program, I had to create two academic papers. The end of the program culminated in a 5,000 word academic paper, and a 15-20 minute oral defense of the thesis presented in the paper. This program helped me truly maximize my academic writing skills and made me very conscious of the power of words. Therefore, I am passionate about writing, and I am very much looking forward to improving my skills throughout my college career.
Any of my father’s paintings would represent me. Sadly, he passed away on July 10, 2017. The art he created are some of the most powerful images I have ever seen, and remind me of the qualities he instilled in me.
Me, Randolph Harrison
I come from Northern Bronx, right near the border of New York City and Westchester. It’s a quiet place there, not really disturbed by traffic or many people. I’ve described it from time to time as a place where old people go to retire. My dad grew up in Boston, but originally he was born in New York City and then he moved to Boston. His parents were both Jews, however they didn’t practice the religion or engage that much with their heritage, so my dad hasn’t either, and in turn, neither have I. My mom comes from Tokyo, Japan where she lived until she was 21. She moved over to the United States and worked as a pianist at several bars and clubs. My mom unfortunately never tried teaching me or my siblings Japanese, so I can’t communicate with the Japanese side of my family that well. Some of my main activities I have right now are reading (I used to read a lot, so I’m trying to get back into it), some musical instruments, and talking with friends. Some books I’m reading right now are “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy, and “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman. The musical instruments that I “play” aren’t serious. I never took lessons on them, but I’ve been trying to teach myself through videos and online resources. Guitar, ukulele, and the violin are the three main ones.
My history with writing as been mainly for school work. I’ve tried doing some creative writing on the side during high school, but I never got fully into it. I submitted once to the literary magazine for my high school, but I never got a copy of it. I’m not even sure if they put it in. I enjoyed writing papers that I got to choose the subject for. Some history research papers were like that towards the end of my senior year in high school. I wrote about Japanese internment in the United States, which was an eyeopening research process.
Dylan Mendoza
A quick and short description of me as a person would be: a dynamic and quirky scatterbrain. However, for the most parts I try to curb that part of me as much as I can and try my best to carry a calm, quiet demeanor – things get quickly out of hand if I don’t! My interests lie in the field of both technology and business, which is actually quite ironic because I’m not exactly tech-savvy. Being aware of that, I’ve added learning code and programming to my short list of hobbies to help me overcome this.
As for my views on writing, I think that writing is a life skill that people, regardless of their career or field, have to hone and try to master whether they like to or not. From a practicality standpoint, being able to communicate effectively, not just verbally but via non-verbal mediums such as written ones, is a crucial life skill to have. This is especially true once a person steps into their respective professional world. As for writing as a passion or a hobby, I have nothing but respect for writers since I associate anything related to writing with torture. I don’t know how they do it!
The highlights within my history as a writer would all have to come from my time in the Virtual Enterprise business program that I had the privilege of being a part of in high school. Simply put, the V.E program replaces your regular classes and turns them into “office hours” for the virtual company, that is exclusively run by students, that you “work” for. The program was very demanding and the projects reflected it. A short list of the said projects include creating business plans; human resources handbook(s); and writing scripts for oral competitions.
*** https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/dmendoza1/ ***
Jacob Kapustin
We constantly get asked to describe ourselves since we were just toddlers, but for some reason, it always presents as a challenge to me and many others. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and have had the same group of best friends since elementary school. We have all been neighbors and classmates at one point, and still hold some traditions from when we were just in the fifth grade. For example, we play “Dover Football” on a block, not coincidentally, called “Dover Street” in our neighborhood. For many years now, our tradition holds as follows: we plan teams, play the game, and then we go have L&B pizza after. Now why did I just rant about how me and my friends play football and eat pizza? I’m not sure. I feel like if I had to describe myself in any way, my friends and family are really what make me who I am. I will always know that no matter what, I can turn to them in a time of need, and be confident that they will be there for me. Although it has been difficult, I have made it an obligation to be with my friends every Friday night. It doesn’t always work out, but these Friday nights, are some of the most memorable of my life. I am a very hard worker. I run a business, work, and go to school; but no matter how busy I get, I will always make time for my friends and family.
Now moving on to me as a writer, I was never really considered a great writer, but I was always creative. My grammar, vocabulary, and spelling were just not there to make me a great writer. Fortunately, once I stepped into the real world… started my company, and got a full time job. I was forced to use both descriptive and formal language throughout my day (both for marketing purposes and just to hold a professional conversation or pitch.) These opportunities were really that missing link between my writing skills, and my creativity.
(It isn’t letting me paste the picture, but it’s a picture of me at a concert)
This picture is a great representation of myself because I like to have a good time and dance.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/members/32978/
Me, Keshav Bhati
I’ve never found it easy to describe myself or talk about myself as a person, but with that in mind I will try my best. I come from a very large family, like 50 first cousins large. I am however an only child and the only single child in my whole family. Not only that but I was also the first child in my family to be born in America. This just means that a lot of attention has been given to me by my family members and not necessary in a good way, more of in a critical. By that I mean I have many high expectations that I have to live up to. This is only exaggerated by the fact that i come from an Indian household in which the kids are already expected to reach the highest levels of excellence. Though I hate this standard that has been set for me I can’t deny that I enjoy working under pressure. Performing under pressure is one thing I am confident in doing. One thing I’m not confident in doing however, is writing. I never have been the best writer throughout my high school or middle school years but I do enjoy it. If I have to write on a topic I actually enjoy, I can write as much as I want. That is not usually the case though and I get stuck with boring assignments that I have to drag myself to finish. Once I start writing, I don’t usually stop until I finish the assignment. That may not be the case with the 5-8 page papers I’ll have to write for this course, but that has been the norm till now. Though i still look forward to taking on the challenges this course will provide me with.
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/members/33021/
Matthew Bassi
Took me a while but I finally found this blog.
My name is Matthew Bassi but I prefer to go by Matt. I’m from Elmhurst, Queens but my family comes from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am fluent in both Spanish and English, but I find it much easier to write in english because there is much more descriptive vocabulary to use. I am just starting College at Baruch College. I’m excited to start and can’t wait to see how my college experience goes. I’m set on majoring In accounting and getting into the Zicklin school of business.
Some other little details about me include: My favorite show is Dexter, Criminal Minds, and Prison Break. My favorite movies are the whole Rocky collection of films and Deadpool 1 and 2. My favorite artists are currently Post Malone and 6ix9ine. I’ve been pretty into Dragonball recently so I guess I could put it down as my favorite book series. I think I don’t read as much as I should.
I was never into writing creatively and I feel like every time I wrote throughout my life it was just a means to get an assignment done. It’s not that I don’t like to write, I just don’t like writing as much as I’d prefer to do other things. I hear that reading and writing makes you smarter and heightens your vocabulary, and I give props to those who do it on their free time, but whenever I write, I either get frustrated because I don’t know how to write out my thoughts in a way that makes sense or I just get bored and distracted. However, I do look forward to creatively writing.
(My pic was the Charging Bull sculpture near Wall Street.)
Me: Akif Rahman, August 29, 2018 Hello, my name is Akif. I am 18 years old and I am currently a freshman at Baruch
College. I grew up in Queens, New York with my father, mother and younger sister. I went to the High School for Math Science and Engineering at City College. I am an Aries who was born on April 14 in the year 2000. I don’t have many hobbies. I pass most of my free time hanging out with friends or going to parties especially in high school. Me and my friends would often go to the movies or places to eat. I was a fairly average student. I did not put in much effort because I was too busy doing recreational activities. Whenever I spent my day indoors, I would usually play video games on my computer or catch up on TV shows. Some of my favorite TV shows are Rick and Morty, The Walking Dead, Preacher and American Horror Story. Some things I do not enjoy is going on family trips. My parents believe that sight-seeing and taking pictures is “fun” but I find it lame. I also do not like extremely hot weather because I sweat and get feel irritated. I also hate sweating because it makes my skin sticky.
I am not a huge fan of writing. With that being said, I am able to write and compose pretty decent essays due to a lot of practice I had in high school. I am very familiar with argumentative essays and comparative essays. However, I am not that confident in writing big research papers because I only had one senior year.
If I had to choose a picture to describe my self, I would choose a picture of a caterpillar in its cocoon stage. In all honesty, I wasn’t a hardworking caterpillar during high school. However, I got my act together towards the end with the intention of doing way better in college. I hope to have a successful 4 years in my cocoon.
Me Aunn
Hi, my name is Aunn Mohammad and I am 18 years old. My parents are from Pakistan but I was born in Brooklyn NY. I just recently moved to long Island. I went to Fort Hamilton high school. I haven’t decided my major yet. Growing up I played video games for most of my free time. I was always into fps games such as call of duty and halo. Me and my brothers were always competitive in video games. In my freetime I also enjoy watching television shows. My favorite shows are game of thrones (who doesn’t like it) and prison break. Since the first episode of game of thrones I was hooked. Next year season 8 comes out, I can’t wait! Unfortunately prison break has ended. Prison Break kept me out of my seat due to the cliffhangers and plot twists. Now i focus on playing Fortnite but also anticipating Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
During school reading and writing were not my favorite subjects. I enjoyed math and science a lot more. Writing requires more “feeling” and emotion. I’m not really about that, expressing myself through words. Math requires more logical thinking and not to much interpretations unlike reading and writing. Math and science are a lot more straightforward. You don’t really have to think beyond the picture or the text. For math you just memorize and understand the formula. Then you just apply the formula to the problem. I feel math is also a lot more useful than writing. Reading and writing is more connecting with art in the way that it is more abstract and can have multiple interpretations just off of one piece of text. I sm not the best writer in the world, but I can get by. I hope to improve my writing skills in the near future with the help of my classmates and professor.