Rule No. 1 of being a freshman at UC Berkeley used to be don’t flaunt the fact that you’re a first year; you’d be bullied into paying for your friends’ Late Night indulgences because that just comes with the territory of being a newbie. While we’re only kidding (sort of), there’s a reason why you’ll hear all upperclassmen reminisce about the good ole days of visits to Crossroads in the middle of the night. Despite Crossroads now remaining open until only 11 at night, we believe you all need to understand the glory that was Late Night. Maybe we can put our heads together and think of ways to bring it back.

The quality of food was just better

Your RA will organize a floor visit to the dining halls at the beginning of the year, and you may or may not be impressed by the normal day-to-day food (spoiler alert, you won’t be). To be fair, it’s still pretty good, all things considered. Late Night food, however, would’ve blown your mind. There’s just something about Late Night food that would perfectly satisfy your sweet tooth and desire for the not-so-healthy foods in life.

The heavenly junk food options were endless

Chocolate chip pancakes at midnight? Hell yeah. Waffles with whipped cream, tofu burgers and fried chicken? Sign us up. Want all of the above? Well, you could eat to your heart’s content because you basically had what feels like unlimited meal points as a freshman. Now in the absence of these foods, perhaps you can satisfy your junk food craving with a run to Artichoke Basille’s or Yogurt Park — it’ll have to do, sadly.

It was the perfect excuse to procrastinate other things

In the past, if you were bored — or, um, just didn’t want to do your homework — you could’ve grabbed a couple of pals from your floor who were equally bored to hit up Late Night. It was the perfect place to have your weekly gossip sesh — you just would’ve had to keep your voices down because everyone you knew would be there too. You’ll have to think of other ways to procrastinate now — perhaps go on a midnight stroll to the Campanile or something.

It would’ve helped you make allies with upperclassmen early on

What better way to build your connections — because college is all about networking — than swiping upperclassmen into Late Night? Nothing. Upperclassmen would’ve literally done anything to get into Late Night (on meal points, of course, not their own Washingtons), so you could have paid it forward. While you could’ve rolled into Crossroads with a posse of 10 upperclassmen and thereby ensure that nobody would try crossing you for the rest of the year, you’ll have to bribe upperclassmen in other ways. You might just have to hand your Washingtons directly to the upperclassmen.  

While the infinitely long line — which would start forming at 9:59 p.m. — was annoying, it made Late Night that much more exciting because the wait was always worth it. Open into the wee hours of the night (2 a.m., to be specific), Late Night would have never, ever, ever disappointed you. We miss you already, Late Night.