Calapalooza, a series of days all UC Berkeley students are familiar with, transforms Memorial Glade. On these days, the campus’s grass is adorned with rows of booths and tables representing a myriad of student organizations. Every person behind the booths called out for students to stop by, advertising their clubs any chance they got.
Picking a Club
During Calapalooza, one thing became evidently clear: decision fatigue is real. With what seemed like hundreds of flyers, thousand google tabs of random QR codes I had scanned, and as many stickers as I could find, I was completely at a loss for what clubs to join. By the end of my time at Calapalooza, the tote bag I brought was filled to the brim with everything I had picked up.
That night, I sorted through all the papers and websites, then I actually called my dad to discuss which clubs I wanted to join. Due to my everloving passion for film, my dad urged me to apply to the film clubs on campus, which helped me greatly narrow down which ones I was considering. However, when I was looking into the details of how to join these clubs, my eyes widened.
The Interviews
The acceptance rate at Berkeley is 11.5 percent, an incredibly competitive school to get into, so it felt incredibly annoying to hear that some clubs required you to get interviewed in order to be even considered for the club.
I remember that the very first time I met the president for one of my clubs was my interview. I immediately assumed he was a rigid, highly professional type man with his tailored suit jacket and glossy dress shoes. I felt my nerves creep up, as I adjusted my own blazer. However, after that interview, I had never seen the president in anything but a sweatshirt and baggy jeans. It’s amusing for me to think about how stressed I was to look my best, when now the president and I can talk as if we are close friends, unlike the formal diction we used during the interview.
I also quickly learned that after your first club interview, you guessed it, there’s usually a second. These interviews usually require you to dress campus casual. Deciding what to wear for campus casual made me more nervous than putting on my suit. I decided I was overthinking it and put on a casual shirt that I liked with floral pants, and I was right! What I loved about my campus casual interviews was that they felt a lot less formal, and I got to see what the regular style was of the person interviewing me. After my second interviews, I felt a lot more confident about the interview process.
The Phone Call
The night after my campus casual interview, I got a phone call from an unfamiliar number.
The person who interviewed me answered, “Hi, Sanya, we’re calling you about an important decision we made for the club.”
I paused, “Um, okay?”
“You unfortunately did not make it into the club.” Before I could even get a second to properly formulate a response, the person on the other end continued talking again, “Just kidding! It’s a tradition here to prank those who get into our club.”
I laughed awkwardly, unsure how to react, but immediately after hanging up, I felt a great joy. I had gotten into the club I wanted to!
Frankly, I found the formal interviews quite silly, but upon reflecting, those interviews are such a fond memory of my Freshman year experience. In being forced to choose what clubs I wanted to join, and in that, being chosen or rejected, I came to appreciate the complex, sometimes extravagant ways people seek out and create communities. The chaos of Memorial Glade’s Calapalooza, the stress of interviews, even the prank call, all made me realize that belonging is as much about surrendering to uncertainty as it is about being selected or celebrated. In the end, getting to the clubs mattered to me, but the real impact was learning how to navigate—and sometimes laugh at—the traditions and anxieties that come with embracing the college experience.