My name is Kamila Cielo Tlatenchi, and I am a freshman here, at City College. So far, I like the experiences I have had at this school. I think that I can speak for most of my peers when I say that freshman year has been a wake-up call. I know that last semester, I learned a lot about myself. I learned not only about the kind of student I am but about myself as a young adult taking my first steps into adulthood. College helps me manage my time better as well as forces me to read more, two of which were very difficult for me at one point. I am not too sure why I tend to procrastinate or think that time revolves around me, but that is something I still struggle with.

Along with a few negatives are also plenty of positive qualities, I know that when I am very passionate about something I am willing to go to as far as necessary to get things done. With that being said, I am also a perfectionist, not to some crazy extent, but I tend to be a perfectionist when I feel like it. Another interesting quality is I love to argue, but not in the way you might think. I love debating and talking about hot topics because I love to listen to others and hear what people have to say.

Since I was nine, movies and film have always played a significant role in my life. It is a difficult question to answer when asked what my favorite movie is but at the moment I would say Bohemian Rhapsody. For as long as I can remember, my parents have played Queen around me and watching a phenomenal portrayal of Freddie Mercury in a movie while jamming out to the songs was just amazing. I am a huge fan of Queen, but before last November when the movie premiered my favorite movie was, I Am Sam. I Am Sam is a movie about a mentally-challenged father who has the mental capacity of a six-year-old. When his daughter, Lucy turns seven and begins to surpass her father intellectually, their close relationship is threatened when the court deems Lucy’s father, Sam incapable of raising Lucy. This movie is such an excellent movie in my opinion because the story is very original, it talks about so many different topics that are very relatable like, single parenting, the foster system, mentally-challenged people and the many prejudice comments that are made about them. This movie is a tear jerker and that coming from someone who never cries for movies. This is one of the first movies I remember watching with my father, and at that time my parents were divorcing, unlike Lucy and Sam, our relationship was not being threatened, but it was a relatable movie because it was about a loving relationship between father and daughter.

I like to believe that one thing changed my whole life and probably is the reason why I am the version of myself that I am and that is an iPad. My lack of interest in reading started when I turned nine. As a young child, I was always reading, whether it was a Junie B. Jones book or an Archie and friends comic but everything changed when I turned nine. For my birthday I was gifted an iPad and began to play around with the camera, making and editing movies on iMovie. Being behind the camera and recording my friends is what sparked my love for film and also where I lost interest in reading. I continued my love for film all the way into high school, where I attended an art based school with a film program. When I was at school, I only thought about what we were going to do in film class that day. When I was at home, I was either writing up storyboards, or I was breaking down movies cinematically. The iPad brought me so much joy and happiness, but without it, I think I would still enjoy reading. Since the age of nine, I have never read a full book, the habit of reading was easy to fall out of but difficult to fall back into. I try to start, but I am constantly getting distracted.

Last semester for Sociology not reading was not an option, we were assigned 40-page case studies to read weekly. The research studies sparked the smallest interests because the next day in class we would have class debates about what the researcher was studying. We were also granted the opportunity to conduct our research which allowed us to interview different organizations. I was beyond prepared because in high school film class we had a whole semester dedicated to documentaries and that was when I learned how to conduct an interview properly. I liked my Sociology/Work and Family class, and I am looking forward to doing similar things in this class as well. Everything can all be traced back to the iPad in a way because without it I would have never been a film student or have even gone to City College, where my sociology professor sparked an interest in social work. There is a famous quote that I like to live my life by, I do not know who said it, but it is “Everything happens for a reason.”