As you make your way through your years at Cal, we can guarantee you that you’ll experience a number of crises. And as you move from freshman to sophomore year, expect those crises to heighten in intensity — and only continue to heighten as you approach graduation. It can be an emotional roller coaster here at Cal, and you need to be prepared.
Freshman Year: The Why-Am-I-Wearing-A-Coat-Right-Now freak out. You’ll definitely experience this your freshman year — and we wouldn’t be surprised if it was on your first day of class — but you should expect to experience it for the rest of your Cal career. The weather forecast tells you it’s supposed to rain. But instead of walking into lecture soaked in rainwater, you end up drenched in sweat because you put on a coat in 80-degree weather. Your classmate asks you, “Is it raining?” Apparently not, you seethe. Yeah, we know. Berkeley’s weather is almost as unpredictable as your grade on an EECS midterm.
Sophomore Year: The Oh-Crap-I-Have-No-Food freak out. You just got your first apartment, and it’s your first time shopping for your own groceries! What an accomplishment! Just kidding. Turns out that was your first and last time going grocery shopping for the semester. What if one of your friends suggests having dinner at your place? All you have is a box of Cheerios!
Junior Year: The What-Am-I-Going-To-Do-With-My-Life Freak Out. It’s almost that time. You’ve spent a few years at Berkeley, and it’s time to be a grown-up person who pays bills and … does other grown-up things. You were expecting to have a job lined up for you right after graduation, but right now it’s not looking like that. What many people don’t understand is that that isn’t always true. And there isn’t anything wrong with that. Looking for a job during your senior year of college is totally normal, and even beginning the search after you have received your diploma is becoming more common. You’re probably thinking, “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. What am I going to do?” STOP. It’s okay. Breathe. In the midst of these crises, we need to remind ourselves that we are all going to be okay. We’ve made it thus far, and we ALL know how hard being at Cal is. And to remind us that we’ll all be okay (and how cool we are), we should all look at this.
Senior Year: The I-Need-To-Get-Into-This-Class freak out. It’s your senior year, and you are willing to do anything to graduate. Anything. This happens when you really, really, REALLY need to get into one of your classes (usually a pre-req or a required class for your major) and frantically search through your address book to ask all of your friends if they are in so-and-so section and would do a huge favor and switch with you, so you can fit the class into your schedule. You offer to pay them in hugs and food (but not money, because who even has that) to drop their section. When your one awesome friend ends up switching with you, you tell him you owe him your life. See? It all works out … after some pretty shameless begging. But hey, you got your class, didn’t you?!
Image sources: grahamk16,architortureschool, beinggiomusso, koaachan, wonderfull-universe
