Some of What I've Learned Starting Adulthood

Now that I have officially submitted my final grad school application and gotten over my typical post-long-term-project-of-any-sort-cold I have decided to make a list of a few things that I have learned, things I'd like to remember, and things I have realized at Berkeley as an undergraduate. Of course, I'll forget to add a ton of stuff onto this list, but for now the following:

1) NEVER buy anything but tea from South Side coffee shops, unless the only thing you value from coffee and espresso drinks is the caffeine. Any drink made in less than thirty seconds is probably not very good unless it's hot water and a tea bag.

2) Those people who you see around campus, who reply "how's it going?" with "I'm so busy. I have no time for anything. So much school work. I'm so busy," no matter what time of the year it is probably spend more time wasting time than they do school work. Honestly, if people study as much as they actually say they study we'd all be serious geniuses.

3) There are beautiful blackberry bushes in front of VLSB behind the willow tree. They're delicious and most people don't even know they exist.

4) How to learn as much as you can from a textbook without reading all of it or even most of it. In other words, BS my way through reading and discussion, though this is a skill that takes practice and cannot be learned through a blog.

5) The homeless in Berkeley are incredibly smart. My favorite: the man with the shopping cart, from which a solar panel sticks out, charging his laptop (?) that is playing incredibly loud techno music.

6) Second-hand clothing stores are amazing!!!! Favorite: CrossRoads Trading Co.

7) Squelch is only funny the first and maybe second year at Cal. Then the fact that the only humor they can sum up is vulgar and sex-related becomes boring.

8) I wrote this in my journal at my first semester at Cal, so I guess it's only fair I add it here: They no longer have "school dances" in College. It was pretty new for me then.

9) The trees that line the entrance of the University are engineered so that they are in full bloom during the Spring, but in the fall when they're leaves fall, they are meant to look like roots sticking up out of the ground. As if they're heads in full bloom are underground. I'll miss them.

10) Don't bother putting up flyers on Sproul. They'll be covered within a few hours.

11) I'll miss the Eucalyptus Grove.



There is one thing that I realized at Berkeley that I think has changed me, possibly one of the major things that transitioned me into the realities of adulthood. We grow up learning about the Civil Rights Movements, Slavery, the Holocaust, Apartheid and we think, "How could people have supported that?" And I know at least for me, that was always a genuine question. It seemed absurd, beyond comprehension. "How we could we have supported injustice to this degree." But after being involved in the SJP's movement to Divest UCB from Israel and the long debates and protests that occupied the weeks leading up to the final vote, I've learned how it's possible.

Because the same type of people who can sit through seven hours of stories about the oppression facing the Palestinian people and children, who can hear first-hand accounts, who can see with their own eyes on video innocent children and people being massacred and then argue against divestment are the same type of people who could see Black people and Jewish people being dehumanized and remain silent, refusing to fight against the oppression. People are afraid. And the emotions, politics and power struggles involved complicate the injustice. It takes bravery and courage to fight against what those in power say. Perhaps now it is obvious to us, unquestionable that Blacks deserved the right to equality, but in its time it was a "complicated issue." Perhaps now the question of whether we should take out a university's money from purchasing bombs and fighter planes that massacre civilians is a "complicated issue," but years from now we'll look back and wonder, "How could people have supported that?"

Revisiting my Blog

I suppose I would like to write in here more often. I've been thinking about the point of writing in here versus writing in a journal versus merely thinking about my thoughts. I haven't come to any firm or convincing solutions yet. When I read other people's blogs I find it fascinating that I can see their views on the world. It's like that moment when you're reading a book and you've gotten to a scene that takes your breath away and you forget where you are, who you are, what time it is and you're in awe. Complete awe that this is how another person sees the situation, the world. That's the beauty of writing. It's so intimate. It's the transfer of my thoughts to the page; it's the closest one will ever get to me. So it's been difficult for me to convince myself to write more often and more personally.

But then again, isn't that why there are 6.8 billions of people on the earth rather than 1, myself or yourself? So that we can create those moments for one another? Perhaps at some point in my writing someday, one person will feel that intimate connection with me through words even if it is for a fleeting moment.