Saturday, January 14, 2017

The summer before beginning college, I enjoyed my summer thoroughly. I spent most of my free time with my family and friends, eating, cooking, and simply chatting. Even though throughout all of my senior year in high school I was looking forward to getting to sit on my couch, eat chips and ice cream while watching TV, this routine got boring within a couple of days, maybe even the first hours. Surprisingly, I wanted to do something more productive in my free time.

Some days I’d feel nostalgic about high school. I’d flip through my senior year yearbook, reading the messages from my closest friends, fellow classmates, and favorite teachers. Other days, I’d worry about college, thinking, “What if I hated college?”, worrying about difficult classes, and feeling scared of failure. I really thought I wouldn’t like college. I thought I’d want to return home everyday, to escape from college, and the rigor of classes. I worried that I had chosen the wrong college, and I worried about the roommate situation, as I had chosen a triple with random roommates, and had no idea of how either person would be like. I couldn’t picture living with a different person beside my sister whom I’ve shared a bedroom with my whole life. What if my roommate and I simply couldn’t get along?

Finally, as August approached, Move-In Day arrived. My dad drove my whole family and I up to UC Berkeley to pack my belongings into my new home away from home. After being given the key, my dad and I raced up to my dorm, and I saw that my two roommates had already came. We had talked beforehand, but only through text and Facebook, so this was our first meet, face-to-face. Thankfully, my roommates and I got along well. We all agreed with the same rules for the room, had similar sleeping schedules, and we all lived pretty close to Berkeley, within an hour away as we were all from the Bay Area. They had actually requested each other back in March for a double, but Berkeley paired me up with the two of them in a triple. Partly due to that, could have been the reason as to why we got along pretty well. The two of them were already similar, and Berkeley must have matched me up with them from the personality quiz.

My first week at Cal was amazing. Everything went so much better than anything I could have imagined about college. It was nothing like what I had worried about. I met so many other new freshmen in my floor (an all girls’ floor), in my classes, and in various clubs and organizations that had general meetings for people with similar interests to meet and get to know one another. I also still talked to my high school friends who also came to Cal with me, and we would grab lunch and hang out, especially in the first few days of college as we were adjusting. It was nice that I knew I could depend on some people, who I had already formed a trust in, and knew really well from high school for so many years. It made finding new friends less stressful, but I still tried to get to know as many new people as I could. By the Friday of the first week, my dad picked me up to go home for the weekend, and I felt a little sad leaving Berkeley.

The second week at Cal felt a little longer. The first week was full of syllabuses, meeting new classmates, and getting to know our professors. By the end of the second week of college, I felt pretty exhausted. A full week of college classes and the workload was getting to be harder, and I knew it would only get more intense as the weeks went by and classes would pick up.

The first month went by really well. I still felt energetic about college (every weekend, I’d rave to my parents about how awesome college was, how much I loved Cal, and how happy I was about choosing Cal). I’d remind (probably really annoyingly) to others, “It’s Week 5!” or something like that, each Monday. By the time October came, midterms were around the corner and stretched throughout the month, and I could feel the anxiety and stress coming to me. Although college was still great, as the semester went on, I felt like it was dragging on. October was probably the hardest part of my first semester of college, due to midterm season, feeling stressed and worked out, with little free time for myself. I didn’t give myself enough independent time to listen to music, or enjoy some TV, or even time for myself, and due to that, I felt unhappy. I was less eager about college (less raving to my parents), as I was studying all the time. Sometimes I wouldn’t go to certain info sessions or hang out with friends so that I could study. Now looking back, to improve for next semester and the semesters later, I’d try to balance my time better between academics and free time for myself. Definitely trying to balance between my classes and extracurricular, such as going to elementary schools to volunteer. That helps ease my stress, as well, to be in an environment such as a local school with young kids, away from Berkeley. It’s a nice time to not think about the work I have to do, and simply focus on mentoring the kids, who are all so cute and lovable!

Beginning in October, my roommates and I started going to Washington Elementary School, a local school in Berkeley, to volunteer as Sage mentors for 5th graders. This became our weekly roomie adventure, where we would go to downtown Berkeley and spend time with elementary school students for an hour on Thursday mornings. We’d read along with them to help some improve their reading skills, and taught them math based on the worksheets their teacher gave. We got to know the students personally, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and remembered to encourage them. Many were very smart, but simply lacked the motivation and encouragement to do their work. They just needed a little push to do their very best. I would look forward to these days, even though we had to wake up earlier than we would need to as our classes didn’t begin until 11 am and we would have gotten to sleep in. The smiles on the faces of these kids as we talked to them and spent time with them made the time and trip worth it.

Finally, when November came, I felt much better about school. I was less stressed, and looked forward to Veteran’s Day weekend and Thanksgiving Break coming up. Also, the presidential election was approaching, and I felt excited since it was my first election where I was eligible to vote. Thanksgiving was a much needed break, to really relax with my family and see my cousins, aunts, and uncles on Thanksgiving Day. Black Friday was fun as well, as I got to spend time shopping to relax. Despite getting to enjoy the break, I still worked quite a bit. I finished most of my essays (there were 3 total) and I was done with almost 2. By the time I came back in December, I felt less stressed knowing a lot of my essays were pretty much finished.

December went well, with only 3 weeks until Winter Break! Winter Break was a full month of 4 weeks, so I really looked forward to that. There was one week of classes, a Dead Week (RRR Week, as Cal students call it) of no classes, and finally, finals! I think Finals Week went better than my midterms, because I knew how to study for those classes, and we also got an entire week to focus on just studying for finals, whereas during midterm season, we still had to attend lectures and discussions and learn new material.

During Finals Week, was also my birthday. I had an 8 AM final the morning of my birthday, so I wasn't too happy about that. When I returned from my final, I realized my roommates had decorated the room with a "Happy Birthday" banner and got me delicious chocolates and a card. They threw a surprise for me with cupcakes, along with some of our floormates that we were close to. They had tried to get me out of the room, and eventually one of our floormates convinced me to go study with her in the study lounge, and that was when my roommates brought the cupcakes and got everyone to surprise me in our room, playing Maroon 5's “Sugar” as I walked in (because my roommates know how much I love Adam Levine on The Voice and Maroon 5's music). It was so sweet of them and everyone to come, and I felt really touched that they had thrown all of this for me, despite it being Finals Week and knowing how busy they’d be with studying and preparing for finals. They wanted to cheer me up because my birthday happened to be during Finals Week and wanted to make it best they could for me.

Anyways, looking back, I think my first semester at Cal went really well and I’m so thankful for the great transition from high school into college. I think most of the reason for that due to me remembering to have an open mind, positive attitude, and a drive to learn and do good.

Best of luck,

Anita