English

I realized my college experience didn’t have to be this epic story to tell as years pass. The choices, the leaps of faith and the small things were enough.

You see, I could be going to another city, like New York. I could be doing a graduate program, but I wouldn’t do that because I intend to stay and relive my glory days here at Berkeley. Forever.

My meraki tried to trickle out, endearingly disobedient, forming beads of sweat in place of stories and saltwater tears where poetry begged to be.

There he lay, resting in his hollow casket beside the trash bin; his leaves limp, his shoots caressing the sides of the empty tomb.

On April 15, blazered bookworms from Berkeley and beyond gathered in Dwinelle Hall for the comparative literature department’s 10th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium.

When you see my name on a name tag or written somewhere, I get that you’ll likely use the English pronunciation. You can’t know how I say my name until I tell you.

In recent years, Latinx and Chicanx students have made up a greater percentage of UC Berkeley’s transfer admit classes than its freshman admit classes — in the 2022-2023 cycle, nearly 30% of all admitted Latinx and Chicanx students were transfers.

Packed into this equation is the obligation I feel to live up to the rankings, but more than anything, to the legacy of those who have made it possible for me to know what career I want to pursue and actively go for it.

After having worked in various departments and facilities, here are some of my biggest takeaways from UC Berkeley’s work-study program.

Sometimes, I reach the border of the translatable, where the languages that normally exist happily together in my mind disaffiliate.