Author: kaeun

Is it more important to be liked or loved? In my opinion, I think there’s a time and place for both. In the long term, it’s more important to be loved, and less to be liked. So in a sense, I agree with Franzen’s concept of being liked and being loved. However, I disagree on the “mechanics” of being liked and being loved. Franzen implies that one has to fake their personality in order to be liked by people and that facade is hard keep up for a long period of time. Once that facade breaks, you’ll find yourself as being someone you’re not. However, I think you can have yourself be liked while being yourself. I think he also sees liking as a very superficial, negative thing, which I also disagree with. I think liking something can be a genuine attraction to something that’s just a less strong emotion than love. A like can slowly crawl into a love and a passion for that specific thing as well.

Based on Franzen’s basis of being liked, social media would play a big factor in this. Nowadays, getting clout, otherwise known as fame, on social media is seen as a very important thing. So many young individuals strive to be the next new thing. In order to do this, they have to be “liked” by others. And to do this, fake personas will be put on in front of the face of their audiences. This type of like is the superficial kind of like Franzen basis his idea of likes on. I personally dislike this whole culture of social media clout and the heavy emphasis our youth places on it. And this ties in with technology/smartphones because as our youth grows to be more attached to technology/smartphones, the bigger of an emphasis social media will have in our lives.

Everyone needs help when they’re at their lowest point in life, right? I was once at this point as well. When you’re a student, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others.You begin to minimize your successes and put yourself down for every small thing you’re unable to accomplish. I struggled with this for the longest time as well. However, at a certain point, you have to come to a realisation that everyone moves at their own pace and even if you move at a slower pace than others, it’s completely fine! I never really took this concept to heart, until my friends and family helped me realize this. They reminded me that as long as you reach your goals, it doesn’t matter how long you take to achieve them. I’m thankful for my support system who still supported me when I was struggling with school, put me back on the right track and helped me achieve and follow my goals.

I remember being very anxious but excited on the first day of my college experience. I used to attend Stony Brook University and commuted to campus through the LIRR. It was a daily two hour struggle commuting to Stony Brook and I honestly hated it. On top of this, my classes also began to become increasingly more difficult as the semesters went by, and my grades reflected my performances in these classes. My grades were at their all time lows and I was pretty shaken up by them. However, instead of my low grades boosting my morale and causing me to want to do better, I began to lose motivation for school and do even worse in all my classes. Not only was this lack of motivation hurting my performance in my studies, but it also took a negative hit in my interactions with my friends and family as well.

It was my family that first noticed that I had begun to grow more distant towards them. They took the initiative and reached out to ask if anything was wrong. I explained everything to them. I told them that my academics were bringing me down and that I was struggling in general. I lost sight of my original goals and ambitions. To my surprise, they were very supportive and stated that it’s okay to struggle and that if I needed to take a break to restructure myself, that I would be allowed to. I’m so grateful for my parents for being so supportive and understanding of my struggles back then. This talk I had with my parents was the turning point of my college career. After I finished my sophomore year, I took a gap year to try to refresh my mind, and thankfully, the break I took helped immensely. During the break, I asked many people around me for advice, which they graciously provided. My friends reminded me that everyone is in school for different reasons and is attending for different goals. Everyone also achieves said goal at their own different pace and that it’s okay to take it easy and slow. I was told not to compare myself to others and that I’m writing my own story for my future. Through all the helpful words of encouragement, I began to see myself as less of a failure, but rather more of someone who was just lost and just needed a little push in the right direction. Without all this advice and encouragement from my family and friends, I would probably not be the same student I am today.

During my break, I took some time to look up different majors I could swap into and I decided to choose dental hygiene. All my friends and family that knew my situation said that they were extremely proud of me for finding a path that I’m interested in and committing to it. I always knew I had wanted to do something related to the sciencey-anatomy field and when a friend of mine mentioned that he had a sister working in that field, I knew it was the path I wanted to go follow. He gave me a bunch of resources to help me get basic information about the field and told me bits and pieces of the ins and the outs of the job. His help, along with the motivation instilled in me by watching my other friends being passionate about their fields of studies, pushed me to get back on my feet motivated and ready to have a fresh start with my transfer to City Tech. However, with my classes being online, it was slightly difficult to keep my spark of motivation since it was so easy to get disconnected from your studies, as everything was remote learning. But to counter this, my friends and I set up online study sessions with each other to keep each other focused and on top of all our studies. My friends played such an important role in helping me refocus on my studies and get back on the right track.

Through my friends and family, I was able to get back on the right path when I was down, and not lose sight of my goals once I got back on this path. Without my support system, I wouldn’t be where I am today and I am forever grateful for all my friends and family who helped push me to be a student I’m proud to have become. I’ve once again found my passion for school and finally have a goal to reach out and seek for, and I know that if I ever lose this spark again, I know that I’ll have the means to get back on track.

Everyone needs help when they’re at their lowest in life, right? I was once at this low point in life as well. When you’re a student, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others.You begin to minimize your successes and put yourself down for every small thing you’re unable to accomplish compared to others. I struggled with this for the longest time as well. However, you have to realize that everyone moves at their own pace and some may go slower than others, and that’s okay! I never really took this concept to heart, until my friends and family helped me realize this. They reminded me that as long as you reach your goals, it doesn’t matter how long you take to achieve them. I’m thankful for my support system who still supported me when I was struggling with school, put me back on the right track and helped me achieve and follow my goals.

I remember being very anxious but excited on the first day of my college experience. I used to attend Stony Brook University, and I had commuted to campus through the LIRR. It was a daily 2 hour struggle commuting to Stony Brook every day and I honestly hated it. My classes also began to become a lot more difficult as the weeks went by, and my grades showed my performance in my classes. My grades were at their all time lows and I was pretty shaken up by it. Instead of my low grades boosting my morale and causing me to want to do better, I began to lose motivation and do even worse in all my classes. Not only was this lack of motivation hurting my performance in my studies, it also took a negative hit in my interactions with my friends and family as well. 

It was my family that first noticed that I had begun to grow more distant towards them. They reached out first and asked if anything was wrong and I explained everything to them. I told them that my academics were bringing me down and that I was struggling in general. I lost sight of my original goals and ambitions. They were very supportive and stated that it’s okay to struggle and that if I needed to take a break to restructure myself and get my motivation back that I would be allowed to. I’m so grateful for my parents for being so supportive and understanding of my struggles back then. The break I took helped immensely. During the break I took, I asked many people around me for advice, which they graciously provided. My friends reminded me that everyone is in school for different reasons and is attending for different goals. Everyone also achieves said goal at their own different pace and that it’s okay to take it easy and slow. I was told not to compare myself to others and that I’m writing my own story for my future. Without all this advice from my family and friends, I would probably not be the same student I am today.

During my break, I took some time to look up different majors I could swap into and I decided to choose dental hygiene. All my friends and family that knew my situation said that they were extremely proud of me for finding a topic that I’m interested in and choosing that path. I always knew I had wanted to do something related to the sciencey-anatomy field and when a friend of mine mentioned that he had a sister working in that field, I knew it was the path I wanted to go follow. He gave me a bunch of resources to help me get basic information about that field and helped me a ton. Through the push he gave me and by watching all my other friends being passionate about their fields of studies, pushed me to get back on my feet motivated and ready to have a fresh start with my transfer to City Tech. With my classes being online, it was slightly difficult to keep my spark of motivation, since it was so easy to get disconnected from your studies as everything was remote learning. However, my friends and I set up online study sessions with each other to keep each other focused and on top of all our studies. My friends played such an important role in helping me refocus on my studies and get back on the right track, and have helped me by guiding me and helping me stay on the right track as well.

Through my friends and family, I was able to get back on the right path when I was down, and they also helped me not lose sight of my goals once I got back on the right path. Without my support system, I wouldn’t be where I am today and I am forever grateful for all my friends and family who helped push me to be a student I’m proud to have become. I’ve once again found my passion for school and finally have a goal to reach out and seek for, and I know that if I ever lose this spark again, I know that I’ll have the means to get back on track.