Cal Day 2021

In contrast to the spirited, crowded chaos many of us were able to experience as prospective students, this year’s Cal Day, now extended into Cal Week, is virtual.

It’s been more than a year since I became a legal “adult,” and yet, I have not experienced that sense of clarity toward life that adulthood supposedly brings.

Both UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley are home to a slew of stereotypes. We’re here to confirm or debunk some of them from a local standpoint, once and for all.

My first year at UC Berkeley, although virtual and 2,905 miles away from home, has been an experience that might not be unique — but it’s certainly been enlightening.

Before I came to college, I knew that football games held a lot of significance to the university experience, but I could not have predicted the lengths I would go to in order to celebrate a football game with my friends.

Having lived in the heart of Silicon Valley my entire life, I’ve always known that I wanted to start my own startup. UC Berkeley’s reputation for its students having founded more companies than any other university in the world is one of the main factors that influenced my decision to attend.

Looking back now, the perception I had of UC Berkeley as a senior in high school saddens me immensely. A Cal Day visit and four years later, it is safe to say it was the best box I ever checked.

One of the most heart-wrenching casualties of the pandemic was the loss of in-person concerts, as the performances that used to animate restaurants, bars and late-night venues seemed to vanish overnight.

Nicknish has been one of the seven bass players in the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, or UCBSO, since his freshman year. He also plays in UC Berkeley’s Chamber Orchestra and a campus jazz ensemble.

It’s that blind optimism at the start of each fall that this is the year Cal football will reach its first Rose Bowl since 1958. It’s also looking for where it all went wrong and harboring thoughts of “maybe next year.”