how I got here

I’m an English major, but how did I get here?

When we are young, there are a plethora of things that we want to be, but as we get older, dreams change as we do. What I wanted to do when I was younger is vastly different from what I want to do now, but to get where I am, I went through what I like to call phases, until I found something I truly wanted to pursue.

You see, when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Although that idea died as quickly as it was formed. Not only was I a terrible artist, my ideas were...

I didn’t get a Cal Day. The admitted first-year class of 2025 and transfer classes of 2023 were the resilient classes, the transitional classes, as we entered a new sense of normalcy with the pandemic. I came to Cal without the Cal Day experience, no tour of campus, no committing on the Glade or Sproul Plaza with newly-made friends, none of that. Cal Day was new to me when I became a Campus Ambassador. The first time I heard about it was when I was in a staff meeting, and our Leadership Team began to talk about the Day’s festivities. It was a Cal Day in this new normal. The first Cal...

I never learned how to cook on my own until this year, my sophomore year of college. Before, it was always my parents guiding me through the steps – let the pan heat up before adding the oil, add meat before vegetables, understand when it’s fully cooked. The base seasonings I use in my apartment are the same ones: onion powder, garlic powder, paprika. But as I’ve made food at Berkeley, I’ve found myself adjusting the flavors slightly, adding my own dash of perspective.

I think growing up is a lot like cooking. If you're cooking raw meat, the first seasoning gets...

If you thought this was a blog providing advice on political boycotting, you would be woefully mistaken. Let me take you on a journey of failure, revelation, and self-actualization – as Maslow would have it.

I started what I thought would be my first of four years at Cal with great anticipation for future achievement, like I was inching up a black diamond knowing that momentum would release me into a good life once I have earned a sizable academic spread. But four semesters later, I have accumulated a snowball that has brought me further down than up and...