how I got here

Taking the 215 to San Diego or LA, you will see a suburb of Riverside County called Menifee, CA. This little city was established in 2008 and now has a population of just over 100,000. It is about 30 minutes southeast of UC Riverside, an hour north of San Diego, or an hour south of Los Angeles. There is a really good chance you may not have heard of it.

I grew up in the small, quiet town of Menifee, California. My mom was an elementary teacher, so I was enrolled in the school she taught at up until I was in 5th grade. From there, I went to a public K–12 charter...

I’ve always looked forward to college. The summer going into fifth grade, I was dragged along to my older sister’s college tours, and while I didn’t love all the walking, I found myself in love with the concept of college. I was awed by the massive campuses, the idea of living with other students, and above all else, having a Chipotle at school. Growing older, the actual education part of college became enticing as well. I didn’t hate high school, but the rigid 12-hour day and standard core classes grew monotonous, making the freedom of what I studied and how I spent my day that came...

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...