1. Your GBO friend group won’t last…and that’s okay!
Everyone tells you that your first big college friend group will barely make it past the first month of the year, and at Berkeley, that means your exciting new friends you met at a random GBO activity won’t be around too long. I thought this phenomenon would skip me, especially since my first few days on campus were overwhelmingly lonely. However, by chance, I met a sweet group of girls also looking for new friends and felt like I had finally met my people.
Like a whirlwind summer romance, our three weeks of best-friendship was exhilarating – consisting of late night conversations in a tiny Unit 3 dorm room and musty dance parties at the only frat letting freshmen in. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and so did that friendship. Since then, my roommates, suitemates, and random encounters have become my closest friends and people I can truly call my new family, but I would never have appreciated them the way I do now without my GBO friends.
2.Humanities at a STEM school is impressive, not embarrassing
As an English major, I often find myself being confined to a box: “English? So which one will it be, law or teaching?” When I complain about essays and midterms, my concerns fall on deaf ears and are followed by claims that I have it much easier than my STEM counterparts.
To all of my fellow arts and humanities students at a STEM school, you are not taking the easy route or any less impressive than everyone else. What you are doing, especially at a school like Berkeley, is hard. But just as much as it is difficult, it’ll be rewarding, too.
3. Stop being a picky eater.
Hate to break it to you, friend, but there will be times when that on-campus job paycheck isn’t hitting till next Tuesday, the allowance your parents may have sent you is long gone, and Panda Express feels light years away. Just eat the dining hall food. It won’t kill you.
4. Just because there’s a venue on campus, does not mean you should spend all of your money on concert tickets.
My first concert, Harry Styles in 2021, radicalized me, and much to my mother’s dismay, now I spend any extra money I have on concert tickets. When I realized the Greek Theatre was just a walk away from my dorm, I knew where that tour guide money was going. Since being at Berkeley, I’ve gone to 4 concerts and bought tickets to 3 more. I have no regrets, but my wallet does.
5. Invest in business professional.
Most students at Berkeley find themselves in pre-professional organizations like consulting clubs and pre-law fraternities, and in the vein of preparing you for the job market, they often require business casual or business professional wear to interview for them, let alone for the clubs’ events. Your singular blazer that you may or may not have stolen from your sister that is definitely not your size is not going to cut it. Buy some slacks. You will use them.
6. Mark Twain was right about the weather in the Bay.
Mark Twain may or may not have once said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Whether or not the quote is real, the content is. If you’re a Southern California girl like me, please bring a puffer jacket. Yes, it rains here, and no, it doesn’t just last for two days during February. Your UGGS are not going to cut it as rain boots, and you will need an umbrella. But embrace it! There’s a reason why it’s so green and lush up here, so keep that in mind when the fog threatens to keep you inside all day.
7. Buy a sleep mask and noise cancelling headphones!
This is for all my fellow music-listening, blackout curtain-having sleepers out there. Berkeley is a city and the dorms are real dorms. It will not be completely dark or completely quiet. Sometimes your roommate will have to keep the lamp on to cram for a final until 2am. Or the frat across the street will be blasting bad EDM music until the morning on a Saturday. You just gotta get used to it. What else is college for anyway?
8. It takes more than exchanging Instagram handles to make a friend.
I remember my first night at Berkeley very well. My roommates were silently unpacking their things as I nervously texted my friends from home about how terrified I was. We headed down to the Unit 1 courtyard for the ice cream social put on by the RA’s, and I prepared to put on my “I’m cool and friendly” smile for all the new faces I was about to see. I’ve never been asked my name, hometown, major and dorm so many times in my life, and I probably never will again. My Instagram account saw more traction during that first week than it has since I created it in the sixth grade.
I would say I consistently talk to about 5 of the people I first met when I got here, and two of them are my roommates. The rush of a new place with new people gives you so much courage to put yourself out there, but that magic is fleeting and will only bear fruit if you put the work in as well.
9. There are too many people on campus to be afraid of embarrassment.
As someone that pauses movies for hours on end just because I can’t handle the experience of watching a character make a fool of themselves, I would say I have a pretty bad fear of embarrassment. However, I’ve learned that in college, and especially on a campus as vast and wide as Berkeley, there is no time to worry about anyone other than yourself, and while that can seem like a bad thing, it can be great, too.
We’re too old to be making fun of each other for everything or remembering what someone you barely know did that was a little funny last week.
10. College is what you make of it!
As corny as it sounds, anytime someone asks me about Berkeley, I can’t help the bright grin that covers my face or the excited words that flow out of my mouth. My first year here hasn’t been perfect, but it’s also been nothing short of a dream. Many of my peers find themselves stressed or tired or lonely, and while I can recognize the extenuating circumstances that can make college hard, I find myself confused for the people who haven’t even seemed to give Berkeley a try.
My best times on this campus have come from writing for the Daily Cal or giving tours to high school students or trips to San Francisco with my pre-law fraternity or late night ice cream runs with my roommates. Not from times I sat in my dorm feeling bad for myself. Sure, this campus and its education and opportunities are endless, but when it comes down to it, it’s up to you to make your time here worthwhile.