TOSSOL Fall 2014 Draft
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Telling Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives. A COLLECTION OF STUDENT WRITING BROOKLYN COLLEGE ▸ FALL 2014 !2 Acknowledgments. We are grateful for the support of: Karen L. Gould, President William Tramontano, Provost Terrence Cheng, Associate Provost for Academic Programs Sara Crosby, Director, First College Year Program" " Ellen Tremper, Chair, English Department Janet Moser, Director of Freshman Composition Heidi Diehl, Program Administrator, Freshman Composition Anthology Committee Christine Costello, Heidi Diehl, Chris Kiehne, Rebeca C. Rivera-Robayo, Carl Schlachte Fall 2014 English 1010 Instructors: Stephanie Adams, Ellen Belton, Eliza Bent, Jacob Chandler, Melissa Clairjeune, Elana Cogliano, Christine Costello, Molly Dektar, Claire DeVoogd, Heidi Diehl, Spencer Everett, Amanda Faraone, Eve Gleichman, Sam Gold, Eric Howell, Judson Merrill, Farid Nassif, Jonathan Nissenbaum, Yashari Nunez, Ilana Papir, Carl Schlachte, Cara Scarmack, Ariel Stess, Cherry Sy, Albena Lutzkanova- Vassileva The Staff at Printworks And, most especially, Gary Shteyngart Cover art: Rust Belt, Florent Morellet www.florentmorellet.com !3 Contents. Preface 6 01 “And then I become who I was always meant to be.” John Khan, "The Stache” 8 Samip Delhiwala, “Put A Smile On That Face” 9 Amy Yedid, “Ana” 10 Jihan Ramroop, “Everyone Writes At Their Own Pace” 11 Shawn Roberts, “No One Is Alone” 12 Nicky Chase, “The Volatile Nature of a Global Community” 14 Mohammed Asaduzzaman, “Lion Time” 15 Porfirio Trinidad, “Verbal Lexapro” 17 Kelly Burns, “An Outsider” 18 Robert Gurevich, “My First Mass” 19 Wajiha Kazmi, “Can I Call You W?” 20 Ricardo Huertas, “An Encounter With Fate” 21 Mysa Abdelrahman, “Love At First Bite” 23 Jenny Lai, “My Sticker Book” 25 Jenny Ye Eun Park, “What's Your Name” 27 Cristian Campos, “Shades of Blue”28 02 “But what kind of profession is this, writer?” Michael Parnes, "Gary Shteyngart: Little Failure?" 31 Magdalena Czerkies, "Gary Shteyngart and His Writing Career" 33 Logan Frazier, “More Than A Meal” 35 Rebecca Harmata, “American Failurchka” 37 !4 03 “…stumbling off a monochromatic cliff and landing in a pool of pure Technicolor.” Anelisa Defoe, “Little Failure: Effects of Leaving One Country for Another” 40 Cynthia Ly, “Boat Boy” 41 Amy Sen, “Public Transportation” 43 Jeanette Eliezer, “Going Home” 44 Lovedeep Singh, “All Aboard The Agra Distress” 45 Anonymous, “A Torch of Hope In The Dark” 47 Nicolette DiNome, “Make A Wish” 49 Nishat Anjum, “In Retrospect” 50 Albert Benjamin, “The Same Dream” 51 Vladislav Borisov, “Transitions” 52 Ingrid Perez, “From a Land of Mischief to a Concrete Jungle” 53 Aileen Boland, “Grande on Grande” 54 Roni Pedhazur, “Whom Do I Love More” 55 Giovanni Tuzzolino, “Born From The Ashes of a Life I Burnt” 57 04 “Do not be lonely?” Kelsey Strickland, “Cody” 60 Crystal Desrosiers, “What Would Crystal Do?” 62 Dov Salomon, “Awkward Awakening” 63 Amy Lindenbaum, “Under My Pillow” 65 Bernard Gomes, "The Little Boxes” 66 Sergio Jimenez, “A Father's Legacy” 68 Arianna Flores Perez, “Losing My Chains, Reclaiming My Dreams” 69 Yana Osbourne, “The Outsider On The Inside” 71 Brenda Bonilla, “Thanksgiving” 72 Rachel Fink, “Making Arroz Con Pollo” 73 Elzyata Sangadzhieva, “Anywhere But Here” 74 Emily Yonce, "The Sinker” 76 !5 Preface. BROOKLYN COLLEGE STUDENTS OF THE CLASS of 2018 began their college experience through the freshman common reading of Gary Shteyngart’s Little Failure. Once classes began, students discussed Shteyngart’s memoir, wrote their own stories, and attended a lecture and reading by Shteyngart when he visited Brooklyn College in October 2014. We call this collection of student memoirs Telling Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives.# !6 01“And then I become who I was always meant to be.” (Shteyngart 26)# !7 the ice. My homeroom teacher was first teacher to call me The Stache “Stache.” A little bit of facial hair became almost iconic for me. by JOHN KAHN A nickname is meant to be short; you ‘nick’ the name and voila! A nickname is born. But mine was longer, it singled me out after already being a minority and I took it in stride. John is the most common name. There were THE TRANSITION FROM middle school to high school is at least three other students with the name in each of my the most terrifying thing I have ever gone through. classes but I was the only Muslim. Islam pushes the idea Transitioning to Xavier High in Manhattan from a much of men keeping facial hair, specifically a beard. Knowing smaller independent school in Brooklyn was both that people accepted my “stache” made it easier for me to appealing and daunting because my self-confidence and grow a beard. Though it’s unlikely any on will call me social prowess had yet to blossom, and I wondered who I Beard, being ‘Stache’ let me forget any distress or could become in the next few years. The summer flew by anxiety. By the time I was a senior, and I had begun and before I knew it I was lying awake in my bed the night cutting the facial hair off because they enforced their rules before I began high school. more strictly, I was a three-season athlete with a bunch of Arriving to school in uniform I looked around an AP classes and other extracurricular activities like acknowledged something I had already become used to: Medical Science Club. In part, I owe it to acceptance the at private Catholic institutions being a person of color nickname afforded me. places you in an overwhelmingly small minority. College should be daunting. The academic Overwhelmed is an understatement, because though I standard should probably be as well. I’m proud to say I’m was still the only South Asian in my old school and this on top of my stuff. A bit of facial hair, or name that one had many minorities, it was a storm of people who emerged from that bit doesn’t define a person, our knew each other passing by–old friends, family, a tight experience and actions, thoughts and behaviors do. But knit community. My outlook was grim, but I was the nickname allowed me to experience so much more, determined to get to a good start. free myself and become comfortable with who I am. The first couple of days flew by in the ultimate back- to-school experience, longer and much more annoying travel, supplies, understanding academic expectations and finally a satisfying opportunity to excel and go beyond arrived. Football tryouts happened after school, and everyone who was trying out was bussed down to Red Hook. A few rigorous days of tryouts had me feeling good, I had exerted myself and let out all the built up anxiety. The next day it was posted; I made the cut. Jubilant but hiding it well, I got in line for my gear and went out with the crew of people in my homeroom became comfortable, but the traditional cliché of a football family began to play in my head. After walking out with the team, and watching the football team practice and doing some drill, we all wrapped up and took off our helmets. That was the first time I heard it. At the time, I was the only freshman to have a mustache. As it turns out, I was the only one in the school. Xavier had a clean-shave policy, and it didn’t apply much to a mustache and no one had enforced it because they never had to with freshman. Immediately upon taking off my helmet, the coaching staff starts calling me over without me knowing. “STACHE. HEY STACHE. OY KID WITH THE MUSTACHE,” they hollered. I realized it was me, and turned around and jogged and helped carry things off. And it was written in what seemed like stone. Everyone began using it immediately; it almost gave me a sense of seniority among my peers. Coaches, the nurse, friends and Varsity players all began using it, random high fives were doled out and friendships were forged because people had such an easy way to break !8 through my veins eventually lifted, and I was grateful for Put a Smile on that. Still, around sophomore year of high school a few of my friends started asking: “Yo, why do you look so That Face angry?” Even as my friends and family members asked me that question, I simply thought they were attempting to by SAMIP DELHIWALA playfully annoy me. Then came senior year of high school. I was generally happy with my life. I had a very close and solid group of friends and a family that supported me. Put that RIGHT FROM BIRTH I was “gifted” with a set of very together with the fact that it was my final year of high unfortunate facial muscles that I simply cannot control. school and you had a very happy – or at least a non- Basically, when I have a straight face, people misinterpret angry – Samip. Around this time, everyone finally noticed it to be a really angry face. This generally leads people to that my face was chronically angry-looking even if it didn’t believe that I am an angry person, even though I’m represent my mood at all. There was even a popular term probably in a positive mood. My facial muscles turn my for this type of face. It was called “chronic b***h face,” or straight face into an extremely angry death stare. I was “CBF.” By now I had embraced my unfortunate facial not even aware of this issue until senior year of high muscles. My CBF turned into one of the main sources of school, though the effects of my unfortunate facial entertainment for my friends and I.