An interesting, new conversation

So today i went to NYU poly again. It was a casual day. I played tennis in the morning with my friends at Leif Ericsson Park and went straight to poly afterwards to work on my semester-long project. Music is such an awesome friend. Even during the loneliest times, hearing music can be a sanctuary. So when i approached my partner's dorm today, he surprisingly didn't pick up, but I waited in the dorm lobby to meet up with him. Shockingly, the security guard there as me, "What's up, boss?" I was instantly shocked. Boss? Well, it turned out that he happened to call everyone that (probably because our tuition money = his paycheck). Nevertheless, i was surprised that Joe (the security guard) initiated a conversation with me. Ever since September 11th, NY has changed so much, so this was quite a shock. So while we waited we chatted a bit. This was probably one of the most unique conversations of all time.


When i told him that i was going to work on my semester-long project, he immediately understood what i meant. He himself was a college student and had only graduated 5 years ago. Not bad, but then he later explained that it was interesting to once again be in college environment. It gave him the chance to understand the shift in teenage culture while offering him a paycheck. Not bad! Joe then told me how his college was so tough back then (which made me wonder which it was). He then said his dorm-mate loved to cook and that guy's father was a famous master chef in Japan who knew how to cut blow-fish. He then explained to me about how his dorm-mate ordered a blow-fish just to cook it. So I eventually continued the conversation and he finally told me the college he went to - Columbia University. SERIOUSLY?!?!?! Columbia? Security guard? He said he was a psychologist and has a degree in psychology at Columbia from the medical fields. Knowing how famous Columbia's medical program is, i was even more shocked at his position. Still, he became a hospital assistant for psychological services and took a part-time job at NYU-poly due to financial issues.


Even tonight, i'm still shocked about a psychologist working at such low-level jobs. He is a nice person
but somewhat lonely. In fact he is sometimes so lonely that he would help counsel some students in need at poly during his lunch break. Then he told me something about psychology. It is also the best quote I've heard so far this month "The door to success in counseling is not to just to understand the problem, but more importantly to understand how they VIEW the problem." He said it was crucial for a counselor to understand the root of the problem to know why the problem started in the first place. It was a really nice conversation.


So...later on when me and my other partners worked on the project, we did some work while discussing about girls. One of the buddies even discussed how the NYU girls were like at their frat parties at night during clubbing hours. It was an interesting conversation, but i'm not going into the details. NYU seems much more fun than i thought, but i sometimes wonder how those students handle the stress while still having fun. Nevertheless, that quote really made my day.




(^-^)v