Community College

Each day brings upon new opportunities to learn about who I am here and what’s available to me. I’ve made mistakes along the way, but I’ve also learned to grow from them.

As a new junior transfer student, I came into UC Berkeley expecting to meet many new people and make a whole roster of new friends. What I didn’t expect was that I would form an enemy after only a month of attending. Surprisingly, my new enemy was not the clubs who rejected me, professors who assigned too much work or the tiresome walks up the campus’ hills – my enemy was imposter syndrome. 

A heaviness, something I couldn't describe, plagued my high school years. I didn’t know what achievement and pride felt like, so I'd never pursued them.

Since being admitted to UC Berkeley, I was fixated on being “the” Berkeley student. I was going to replicate my “success” of my community college days while redeeming myself from my failures in high school.

I saw my friends’ lives like scenes from an early 2000s college movie, the kinds I saw glimpses of in adults’ eyes when they''d tell you, wait for college.

My academic transition to UC Berkeley went smoothly because community college adequately prepared me.

My first year at UC Berkeley has given me the impression that making friends here isn’t as easy as it was in community college. Just living in the vicinity of other students did not mean I was going to have friends.

I can’t exactly pinpoint what I thought the outcome of attending Santa Barbara City College for all those years would be, yet starting when I was 18, I managed to be enrolled every fall and spring semester at SBCC, varying between part-time and full-time enrollment.

Community college was supposed to take two years for the average aspiring transfer student. That average wasn’t going to apply to me.

Being a mentor not only changes the life of your mentee but can also impact your own life. Be the change you had in your life, and guide others to success!