After crunching some numbers and emailing back and forth with professors Ive concluded that I will, in fact, be passing each of my classes this semester. If I can land a 68% or above on my Comparative Politics final, I will turn out a B overall in that class. If I can land a 60% on my Analytical Chemistry final, I should receive a C in that class. If I ace it with a 100% (the goal) I should receive a B. The grades may not be what I typically expect of myself but this entire real college experience has been a crazy transition. These have been the fastest 17 weeks of my life. As much as I hate to be leaving my new RIT family already its come time to say, in the words of the great Tig(g)er himself, TTFN: Ta Ta For Now! Ive done so much in the last four months that I never thought Id get the opportunity to do and met so many people that I wouldnt be the same without today. A few weeks before school, I said goodbye to many of my friends back home whove been dearly missed throughout the semester but I was also introduced to one of the most genuine persons that I believe I will ever have the opportunity to associate with. It started in the most hilarious way with him being thrown into The Life of Garrett completely unaware of what he was being brought into! Whos actually the one going to RIT, surely its not the guy with gasoline in one hand and a blow torch in the other? Whered his shirt go? Is he seriously grinding on people? I might actually like this kid. Daniel Husband was an amazing friend to me throughout the beginning of the semester and one of my biggest regrets from this semester has been unintentionally distancing myself from him. Hes passionate about his work, one of the nicest people I have ever met and has inspired me to try harder at the goals I set in life because its never too late to aspire for greatness. Probably the most surprising thing about the whole situation is that Ive known about this guy for years now and only just now met him! Thank you Dan for all of the fun times and the motivation weve had throughout the semester, youve been a true friend. Two weeks before school I met one of the coolest guys to date, Harmeet Singh. Hes taught me so much about his culture and other cultures that hes experienced through his worldly travels. Hes taught me what it means to be a Person of the World, shown me that cultural boundaries are only what you make of them and dont mean you cant be amazing friends. He also introduced me to some other crazy people like Luvy Arora, Raul Mittmann Reis and Everton Spader. Knowing each of these people and learning about their cultures has really opened my mind to other parts of the world and the way I view the differences of the people I interact with every day. Harmeet, youve been a true bro this semester, thank you for helping to break me out of my American shell. I know, without a doubt in my mind, that you will be a lifelong friend and inspiration. A week before the start of classes I met the self-dubbed Team Transfer during RITs New Student Orientation which consisted of some awesome OAs (Carus Cookman, Usman Hafeez, Aaron Joseph Lee, Steph Barbato, Lauren Pelletterie, Laura Hoerner, Alex Reding and Savanna Miller you guys are the real MVPs) and the rest of the transfers who werent too cool ( Hailie King, Ian Kitchen, Eric Meeker, Alex VandenBerghe, Kortni Sheldon, Broc Cartwright, James Flint, Marie Bianconi, Julie Rose, Emily Diehl, Dave Studin, Steve Hawke, Steven Cerqueira, Brandon Martinez, Anuj Chokshi) Without this group, I would have never been able to come out of my shell at RIT and expose myself to the huge dynamic of different lifestyles. Most of us didnt know anybody before coming to this school and I know for many its been a rough transition, but going to #ROTNSO14 was definitely the best decision any of us could have made! Ive been distant with this group off and on, but whenever I come crawling out of whatever rut Ive sunk myself into theyre always there to welcome me back with open arms. I owe you all thanks for making that the easiest and most fun school transition that Ive ever gone though. I left a couple people out there though; people that I feel deserve special mention. Brandon Ventry, Scott Baron and Evan Paton have been awesome friends to me throughout this semester and some of the greatest memories from this whole experience with have been with these guys. From teaching me how to really let loose and party hardy on the weekends to library cram sessions that last until 3 AM and even the occasional Thirsty Thursday, these guys have been through it all with me. Youre all frickin badasses and I cant wait to enjoy the next two years with you guys! Were not in the frat, but you guys are brothers in my book! So then school started, and I met even more people! My other two housemates Ram Longman and Gabriel Luce moved in and turned out to be super chill. With the four of us never having met before in our lives I couldnt have been happier with the turnout at 3027! After all, how could you go wrong with a mechanical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer and computer engineer all living under one roof?! Thanks guys for making this a home this semester and not just another house. Then came all of my Civil buddies! I met most of these people last year at the ASCE conference and competition and knew then that I had made a good choice in continuing my education at RIT. Kayla Pliszka, Tyler Lynch, Tyler Becker, Andrew Walker, Melissa Kehoe, Alfred Victor Gan, Erhard Marcus Uhmann, Joanna Macintyre, Colin Waldner, Damara Gulino, Robert Schubert, Chris Kiripolsky, Samantha ONeill, Shane Madden, youve all made this a great team to be apart of. Canoe been off to a rough start this semester, its definitely gone differently from what we thought at the beginning, but I know that with a little bit of hard work and dedication we can pull out another win at this years conference and shoot for nationals! The BCC Civil department pushed out some pretty brilliant and motivated students, and Ive known you guys for three years now but have only just recently gotten the opportunity to know you. McKenzie Martin and Chris OBrien have both become good friends and are always a great home away from home kind of comfort to be around. Thanks to the both of you for helping me prove that just because you come from the sticks doesnt mean that you cant have the passion to follow your dreams and put in the hard work to make a name for yourself some day. Between those two, Kurt Melvin and myself we have began working on creating an Associated General Contractors student association for any scholar at RIT interested in learning the ins and outs of the construction industry and its been my pleasure working with them in getting it going! Kurt and Chris deserve a special mention as well though (shut up Chris I know its sappy just smile and read on.) These two have been my best friends this semester. Weve worked together on a ton of projects and had ridiculous amounts of fun while we were at it. We werent just friends, but a team. I threw my first kegger with these guys, had pre-meetings at Building M before almost every Wednesday night meeting, beer-itos after Monday night CAD classes with Joanna, let loose and partied almost every weekend, and worked alongside them when even our own department didnt agree with our goals because our ideas were making waves. Thanks to you two for helping keep me active and living life to the fullest, its been a pleasure getting to know you! The first week of school also showed me that sitting in the front row of a lecture hall of 180 people is always a good idea. Chemistry is not my forte and coming into a college chemistry course with no background knowledge was most likely the hardest learning experience Ive ever encountered. I lucked out though and some pre-med prodigy named Spencer Perry sat next to me. He helped me throughout the semester to understand concepts that I could never have gotten on my own as well as helped to provide comedic relief in all of McLeans over complicated lectures. Its thanks to him, Forest, Anjali Sood and Marcus that Ill be passing chemistry this semester. Somewhere around week four or five in the semester, my co-captain Scott and I assembled a ragtag group of misfits to take down the annual RIT Mud Tug. We didnt have the human resources necessary to make a full team, so we reached out. We found a man named Mason who was one of the largest, yet down to earth, men I have met in my life. With that Goliath of a Marine and Dan at the back of our lineup, there was no way we were going to win! When reaching out to people to get the team assembled, I also met Jeanette. We dont talk anymore, and we ended our friendship on a terrible note. She was still a huge part of my growth throughout this semester though, and it wont go without mention. We both were hitting some pretty rough patches in our lives and an unfortunate chain of events and personal differences led from friendship to resentment. Before shit hit the fan though she was a good friend to me. She introduced me to her Mario Party, Skyler Lehmkuhl, Mario Chuman, Alexandre Froio, Kyle Flores, Joseph Porsella, Peach Plum Peregrine and company. My time with these people was relatively short but Fancy Fridays, random lunch gatherings throughout the week and game nights were always entertaining and a pleasure to attend. Youre all wicked cool kids in my book, thanks for letting a country boy infiltrate your geeky ranks for a while! Then I had Effective Technical Communications. My first thought was that I was going to hate the class. What could I possibly take away from it? It quickly became one of my favorite classes to attend though. It followed Chemistry every Tuesday and Thursday night, 6:30 - 7:45 and would have been easy to skip if it werent for the great friends I made during the class and the unorthodox amounts of fun we had. Sure most of the class was spent giving Professor Woelk a hard time and smart ass answers. After all, it was our own opinions. Thanks Chris, Ian Crell, Kaity Wolford, Jake Wingate, Sean Terry, Tallon Rood, Marcus and all the other guys from that class for making it worth while. So that was my semester, in a nutshell.. - I lived my life to the fullest. - I learned to love people for their differences, and Ive learned that some times the best thing to do is be different. - Ive met new people and gained great friends, and Ive lost great friends as well. - Ive created to many great memories with even greater people. And I cant thank you all enough for making this the best school experience Ive ever had. Thanks for making RIT my home!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 22:44:08 +0000
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