Hey everyone! My name is Quamel Lewis (“Q” for short) and my pronouns are he/him.

Born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, I currently live in Manhattan and I’m a returning upper freshman after a long break from Fall of 2017 (in reference to the thread title named after of one of my favorite albums, this is my own comeback) to pursue a full-time career with the MTA. I work as a supervisor inside of the Power Control Center for the subway where we monitor, maintain and control electricity to the infamous third rail that allows trains to move throughout the entire city. I am currently undeclared and plan to major in civil engineering while minoring in economics to later pursue a degree in business. (I recommend anyone with a job or career that offers tuition reimbursement to use it.)

English is my only language and my immediate family were all born and raised in Brooklyn with roots in the South, specifically spanning from South Carolina where my great grandmother was born.

One of my favorite readings is Requiem for a Dream authored by Hubert Selby Jr. Having read the book my senior year of high school for AP Literature, it served as a pivotal moment in which I began making societal connections to the theme and message from the book which opened my mind to think more critically and analytically in my everyday life.

My main issues with writing are a lack of vocabulary and sentence structure. When writing papers, I often find myself using the same words and phrases repeatedly and would like to expand on that to make my writings more full and concise.

Some hobbies of mine include simulation/open world gaming and developing, watching reality television (The Real Housewives), listening to music, attending concerts, and traveling (typically attending a concert by traveling). I enjoy games such as Cities:Skylines, Minecraft, The Sims, Roblox (there is no shame in my game), and train simulators which I’ve played most often since childhood. My favorite project that I’ve done on it was build a replica of the New Jersey Transit railroad system (almost but not exactly) to scale and automate trains to run based on their posted schedules which included moving trains from yards, setting up interlocking systems and other aspects behind the scenes to allow the system to run without my intervention. In short, I like to build stuff!

My favorite genres of music include pop and R&B spanning across different decades and I love listening to (and somewhat studying) the voices and artistries of the greats including but not limited to Mariah Carey (all-time favorite vocalist), Whitney Houston, Beyoncé (Big Beyhive), Janet Jackson, and many more. I’ve also travelled near and far to see my favorite artists in concert (Las Vegas, Houston, Toronto, Germany) and I want to visit places such as Lisbon, Portugal; Athens, Greece; Tokyo, Japan; Amsterdam, Netherlands, and other destinations that may fall under my radar.

Overall, I look forward to developing new skills and possible friendships during the semester and throughout my academic journey!

This was back in August of last year when I traveled to Munich, Germany to see what was once the greatest show on Earth.