Category: Coffeehouse #1 (Page 1 of 2)

Rahmani’s intellectual home is about his experience in city tech and about his first month in college. He would talk about how he wasn’t happy in his first month. He was in a depressive state, he didn’t make any friends or joined any clubs which made him lonely. During his spring semester, he walked into his English class, discussing a short story with his classmates. He didn’t like what one of his classmates said about the story being misogynistic and he thought he had a better interpretation about the short story. He began to realize what this class was about and brought out something inside of him. He saw what this city tech was truly about and what makes student want to come here and eager to learn something. When he first entered the school he had no motivation to pursue anything in his school. Now, he’s motivated and he’s filled with ideas and flashing wisdom. He was starting to feel good about himself , started participating more. He was engaged in one his classes in way that he wasn’t before. He started joining clubs and other things. He started making new friends. His experience in city created the person he is now.

Bilal Rahmani’s intellectual home is his college City Tech, his English classroom, his classmates, and his professor. Rahmani was previously in a depressive state where he only attended without actually being present in mind, wanting to leave and had no ambitions. He didn’t make any friends or join any clubs or do anything, he was just in and out. He didn’t feel interested in anything, not even participating in the classroom. He didn’t care to make any other efforts. This narrative changes in his second semester of college. In his English class, his class was discussing literature by Ernest Hemingway, it was “Cat in The Rain.” He decided to share one his thoughts with the class but a student next to him also had her hand raised and was picked to share. Rahmani had a very strong ego and referred to her as “the dumb girl next to me.” He didn’t believe that anyone around him could interpret the short story better than him. She shared her idea which basically stated that Hemingway was misogynistic, which Rahmani thought was nonsense until the teacher explained that Hemingway was in fact very sexist. He brushed this aside as “a minor slip up.” Right after that the class took turns sharing their ideas about the story and he was presented with so many ideas and different perspectives that this experience was an eye opener for him. His ego was let down and he saw ambition, inspiration, intelligence, and just more to come. He became more open to engaging in the college now and with his class. His intellectual home became the atmosphere of where he learned in his college and the people in it.

Bilal Rahmani’s intellectual home was his English class, his classmates, and his professor for that class. He stated that his “first month of college passed in this depressive state” because he didn’t care about the social aspect of things there. He went on to say he did’t join any clubs, make friends, go to pep rallies or anything else on that spectrum. All he did was go to school then go home to do his homework then repeat the cycle. The classes didn’t interest him nor did the professors engage him to be enthusiastic or even slightly interested in the classes he had, however, all of this changed during the second semester when he happened to have a certain English class. In this class, they were talking about a short story by Ernest Hemingway called ” Cat In The Rain”. He figured he’d have to answer all the questions the professor asked about the short story because none of his other classmates would understand the symbolism or complexity of the story. He raised his hand to answer a question, but so did a girl that was sitting next to him. The girl was picked and gave a whole different interpretation compared to the one that he already had in his mind. He still figured his interpretation was smarter, but then that’s when the rest of the class started “shooting out ideas that all made so much sense”. He went on to say “The classroom became ink, penetrating the water, which was my mind, adding new colors, creating something completely new, something I alone could never hope to create.”, which was his way of saying the class actually stimulated him intellectually. It created a spark in him he didn’t realize could exist. His intellectual home became that classroom and everyone in it.

Rahmani’s intellectual home is City Tech and the people who attend city tech. The people are the professors and students from City Tech who at first made him feel that they made no effort to inspire their students or better their classes. Nobody seemed to socialize with each other, just get to class and go home after.  Being in the English class, having discussions, and seeing how others viewed Hemingway in a different way he did dragged him in. He doubted his classmates until that one girl raised her hand and gave an interpretation that he never thought of, later everyone else started to share out all of their different ideas which made him create different ideas in his head.  English class made him realize that he is now eager and ambitious. City Tech made Rahmani become a person who no longer sees the worst of everything. When he first got to the school he had no desire to try and pursue anything, but that one class changed everything for him.

Rahmani struggled in the beginning of his college years being engaged despite him being a straight A student; he just didn’t see the appeal and wouldn’t apply himself like he would in his younger years. Since, being rejected from his middle school to join one that nobody’s never heard of, his outlook on school there on became very linear. He went into college very apathetic and egotistical, mentioning how his classmates were dumb giving their opinions on Ernest Hemmingway’s’ ideologies  and how they couldn’t possibly understand the “enigmatic allegories” presented in his texts. But, seeing how a discussion about an author he considers the best pique his interest, he eventually found what he needed to feel like he’s getting the most out of college. His intellectual home at City Tech wasn’t ideal at first, but the more he became engaged in discussions, readings and inevitably interacting with people he would call friends, it became clear that this was his home and he would grow stronger participating in it. The people in his “home” would be his teacher and colleagues who would present a good debate to motivate his mind. While the places would be in school and throughout campus, He would imagine them as vibrant communities and much more intense than just a regular school. An example of this would be when he expressed, “The classroom became ink, penetrating the water, which was my mind, adding new colors, creating something completely new, something I alone could never hope to create. The discussion dragged me in, and I too began to share my ideas, adding to the excitement of the classroom.”  He pictured the classroom more creatively and more lively like a movie scene. The processes that he would partake is joining clubs, being involved in literary contests and overall courses that grabbed his attention and expanded his mind. Even though his first month here was depressing and his longing to leave grew, he finally found his happiness in his forever intellectual home that will hopefully change his outlook on education for years to come .

My perspective on Bilal Rahmani’s essay about his experience in city tech, I relate to him in some things in the part where he explains that he doesn’t feel comfortable at university and that he just can’t wait to leave.  That way I felt in the first semesters that he was in city tech as if he only went out of obligation, not because he wanted to learn. I have learned that it is good to join all the clubs that seem interesting to me at the university in order to find a way to have fun and meet more people, and that was one of the ways he was able to change his way of thinking about city tech .  friends, clubs, teachers helped him get his interest in learning back.  From his experience I have also learned that city tech not only enters to pursue your career but also helps us learn new values and grow as a person. Also note that Bilal is so sure of himself that he feels smarter than anyone.  feeling self-confident also helps to find interest in whatever you want to learn, and it is good to believe in yourself. Just give time to City Tech. 

I believe Rahmani’s Intellectual Home consists of People, Places, and Processes. I believe People and places have a big impact on Rahmani. At the beginning of this essay, Rahmani was impassive to his college career; he came off as showing no type of effort during his first semester at City Tech College. In the third paragraph, Rahmani states “My first month of college passed in this depressed state. I was completely indifferent to anything and everything”. Rahmani states he was completely uninterested. It could be due to the fact Rahmani felt he wasn’t being challenged in his classes since he was unable to pick his schedule and the classes he would rather join as stated in paragraph two. Rahmani continues to speak on how he felt no one in his classes attended the class because of interest but for the simple fact of passing. I believe Rahmani became a part of this depressive cycle because he saw the lack of effort from not only students but professors. However, the next semester Rahmani’s view on the City Tech and the classes changed drastically. During his English class, they discuss the short story “Cat in the Rain” By Ernest Hemingway. Rahmani thought he would have to answer all the questions because of the lack of effort from his classmates. He was amazed when a girl shared her views on the short story. Her perspective completely differed from his but he loved that. It impressed him so much more when more students started to share their thoughts on the short story. Towards the end of the story, Rahmani felt like his perspective on City Tech was wrong. There were people that wanted to share their ideas as much as him. This is where he felt like he belonged.

Rahmani’s intellectual home definitely seems to be City-tech due to the fact that he claims City-tech has crafted his genius for what it is today. For example, in the final paragraph Rahmani states “my experiences, knowledge, and ambitions have joined together to create who I am, a no-longer-pessimistic student at New York City College of Technology”. In the beginning of his college experience, Rahmani was apathetic towards his college career, finding no hope or ambition to learn anything new from anyone else. His dislike for college grew stronger as everyday went on. For instance, he says “from my dreary perspective at the time, my lackluster professors seemed to give little effort towards inspiring their students, and the students made no effort to better their classes in any way. To me, no one seemed to really attend this college; everyone seemed to be in a state of leaving, ears pinned to an invisible evacuation siren”. However, after having a class discussion about Hemingway, these feelings change because he starts listening to a perspective that the teacher deemed correct. After putting his ego aside, he realizes that school isn’t something that’s around for no reason, it’s ultimately there for the purpose of learning. Which is why he saw City-tech as his intellectual home, because he didn’t academically flourish anywhere else more.

Rahmani’s intellectual home consists of people, places, and processes but people and places have a more important part than the process. Rahmani was an egotistical and pessimistic person, he feels out of place, yet he feels everyone else is the problem. He is a good student and he thinks too highly of himself to the point where school was pointless and felt like he wasn’t being challenged or his being intelligent was meaningless among those who weren’t like him. He felt like no one cared to even try to put in the effort to learn, as well as the professors, as if they were all just waiting until class was over go home and repeat, he himself became a part of that cycle. Towards the end, it all changed, both the school and the class of students and professor changed his perspective and he found where he belonged. In English class, a short story was being discussed, “Cat in the Rain”, and he was surprised to learn that this girl had a different interpretation of what he originally thought, it bewildered him, even more when the whole class began to say their own thoughts on the story. He found this to be what he needed, he finally felt like he belonged, the eagerness to learn that came from everyone gave him the opportunity to feel it as well what he has been longing to feel and he finally found purpose and meaning in school. It made him who he wanted to become and in return his egotistical and pessimistic self was gone and he began to tutor and help others giving purpose to his own self.

My perspective of “”Bilal Rahmani’s Intellectual home”, is that he constantly thought that he didn’t belong when it came to school until he got to college. He would constantly ask, “why am i here”? Getting rejected from the middle school of his choice and getting shoved into “The high school for Health Professions and Human services” definitely made him think about weather or not he really liked school and if he belonged.  Although he considered himself a smart student and proved this through his SAT’s, being the ideal student,  and completing all his assignments, which caused his ego to increase, his hard work wouldn’t pay off.  Regardless of the “endless hours” he would work on assignments he would still end up failing. This then caused him to not care as much for school and he would end up skipping classes,  and slack off a lot more, yet he still surprisingly passed. When Rahamani began college in the spring of 2011, he took an English class in which he had to read and discuss the short story “The Cat in the Rain” by Earnest Hemingway. The discussion afterwards is what ended up changing the way he viewed school. He became more engaged, enjoyed the discussions, and debates that ended up taking pace in his classes. The “wall of egoism vanished” and he was able to finally see what college was really like. His ambitions changed, and he found his place in the community.