Listening to the Struggles of Others

a card

“When I was growing up as the only child, I’ve experienced people leaving me at the age of 7. Through experiencing many hardships growing up, getting picked on and people backstabbing me, it has taught me many life lessons and how people end up changing under certain circumstances. Learning people’s true colors after seeing them go through hot water changed my perspective.

Throughout my hardships and rough patches, it showed me how I can relate to so many people. I am able to give many life lessons and advice because I been through so many harsh circumstances. Life lessons eventually became my wisdom. Through advising other people who are going through many things, I try to warn them of what to do and not to do because it’s just horrible to repeat someone else’s mistake. Making a mistake twice is a decision. I’ve had couples come to me for advice, and many other type of people, but sometimes advising is not enough because people would prefer to experience the hardship and learn it the hard way.

Most of all people just need someone to listen to them whenever they mention their struggles, because we’re all struggling in many ways. Some of us are good at hiding our struggles. To listen to someone, you don’t listen to reply, but you listen to actually listen to them.”

Name: A. U. W.
Age: N/A
Major: Law and Paralegal Studies

 

Destined for Greatness

a card that says "We are all destined for greatness"

“The people we meet, decisions we make, and events in our life are not random occurrences. It is the hand of destiny guiding our faith. I don’t want to become a doctor to simply “help people”. I want to be a doctor for the poor and disenfranchised because my destiny is somehow intertwined with theirs. I don’t fully know how yet but, everyday I am guided closer to understanding and continue to work hard because I can’t sit idly by while my dreams and aspirations are in the balance. More importantly we all have a role to play in the game of life and if our faith are dependent on each other then I refuse to be the reason we don’t succeed in what ever endeavors lie ahead of us.”

Name: A. W.
Age: 22
Major: Applied Mathematics

Getting Experience

Hi, my name is Mandy and I will be blogging personal stories of City Tech students along with a quote/word that inspired or helped them through hard times. (This is somewhat similar to The Humans of New York). The post will be consisted of the students’ story in their own words followed by their name, age, and major. The quote will then be hand-lettered by me on a wallet-sized card to be given to the storyteller, to remind them that these quotes/words could be powerful.

 

a card that says "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

“Last semester I had senior project and an internship at an acting school. For senior project I was nervous but confident because I had a pretty good idea of how it what going to work out and for my internship I knew a couple of people going in so I didn’t sweat it much. The semester actually started good and I was making great progress on my project until I hit a bump of sorts. It was during a meeting with my professor and I had been proud of my work so far I showed him my work and that’s when it happened – I was off – proportions of all my figures were way off. Normally I’d brush it off and go relearn again but this was senior project; this was the end all be all or at least that is the weight you feel when you go in. I didn’t have time to relearn or redraw I had to learn on the fly or I’d probably fail hardcore. Failure was weighing on me – I freaked out. I was so bad that every figure I drew afterwards was so off and they kept getting worse. In the midst of my breakdown my advising professor really helped me out if it. He was always honest with me not wanting to sugar coat the toughness of the industry I was walking into. He told me that this profession (the arts; no matter what form) has its challenges, pitfalls and days were you want to break down but it’s how you come out of those days that determine how you’ll do in this industry. His little pep talk meant a lot to me. I dragged myself out of wallowing and made it through my senior project fairly well. The year didn’t turn out as I had planned but I’ve learned that “experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”. Full digression I got that last one from a fortune cookie.”

Name: C. R.
Age: 23
Major: Illustration