Coming to the end of this year, I had mixed feelings about leaving my dorm at UC Berkeley-- the place that since last August, had been my home away from home. It got me thinking about this year and how unbelievably crazy this experience has all been. Here are, what for me were, the 10 best and worst parts of my first year.
..1. Best: Friends
I feel unbelievably lucky to have met some of the people I met this year. As a transfer student, one of my biggest fears was getting to Berkeley and not being able to make connections with people, not making any friends and ultimately having a crappy experience because of it. College is about academics, sure, but without the friends part, you can basically just kiss your chances at a fun year good-bye. Not only did the friends I made this year make my year fun, they ended up being the people I relied on the most; they became my extended family.
2. Best: Independence
As I think was the case for a lot of transfer students from a community college, I was used to going to my community college and then coming back home where I lived with my family. Now, I wasn’t ever shadowed or told what to do in terms of my schedule, but there was still that sense of being at home. Once I transferred, there was complete independence from that. I also had a single in my dorm. It was the first time I had my own space completely away from home and it was one of my favorite parts of being at Berkeley.
3. Best: Classes
My community college was honestly a really great place, the professors were fantastic and I am still in contact with some of them to this day. However, once I was actually at Berkeley taking classes, I fell in love with everything about the experience. Each professor I had was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about what they were teaching. It was beyond what I had previously experienced and each lecture made me more and more sure I had made the right decision to attend Berkeley.
4. Best: Adventures
It just has to be said that apart from all of the great things that came with being at Berkeley as a student, there were also the amazing things that came with being in Berkeley itself and a Bart ride away from San Francisco. My first semester a friend of mine and I would make it our mission to visit the city at least a few times every month. We were both from SoCal and wanted to take advantage of the city. I got to know a lot of the places I had always wanted to visit: Fisherman’s Warf, shopping up and down Mission St., Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge and tons of places I don’t even totally recollect.
5. Worst: Distance
Even though there were tons of things to keep my mind, body, and soul occupied at Berkeley, the distance was tricky. I have been dating my boyfriend for almost two years now and this past year in a long-distance relationship was tough, to say the least. It was probably the hardest part about being away from home. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t miss him and that kind of a thing takes a toll on you, whether you realize it or not. Thankfully, we made it through our first year apart and it was honestly a lot thanks to him. I don’t know a lot of guys who would be willing to take a 10-hour bus ride from LA to Oakland at least twice a month to see their girlfriend for only a day. I just got lucky I guess!
6. Worst: Adjustment
I think one of the worst things for me this year was having to go through the year feeling like I didn't have anything figured out. Coming from Orange County, Berkeley was basically a polar opposite and it took some time for me to adjust to that. Not only that, I have always been a pretty family-oriented person and being in a single in my dorm could make me feel pretty lonely. It was a huge adjustment getting used to all of it.
9. Worst: Stress
I think overall, this year was the most stressful of my life. I constantly felt like I was juggling a million things at once while having to still keep going full speed in school. From finances to school work to the ridiculous crime rates in Berkeley, there was always something I would stress out about and worry over. I never really felt like I had my life handled but hey, I guess that’s what college is.
8. Worst: Course Load
Coming from a community college, I was used to working hard and seeing the results. I was used to doing my homework with the knowledge that even though it was last minute, I would probably do well on it. Berkeley, therefore, hit me like a runaway train. I could not believe the amount of time I was spending doing my schoolwork every night and how difficult it was to do well even with all that work going into it. It was seriously such an adjustment and it took me a pretty long time to get used to it. The silver lining to that is, I did it and I really feel like at the end of it all I held my own. Now I have a year under my belt with a super swag internship waiting for me in D.C. this summer with the Department of Education.
