daily cal

I’m a senior. I’m about to graduate. I’m about to get the heck out of here. And that is pretty damn scary, to be honest.

These stipends are therefore intended to tangibly recognize the work and commitment of dedicated staff, as well as make The Daily Californian more accessible to UC Berkeley students.

Walking up to random people and asking “Do you wanna be my friend?” isn’t very successful as an adult.

It’s asking a lot — as a Daily Californian journalist who holds great pride in attending UC Berkeley — to remain unbiased in my reporting on Cal athletics. Why do I have to be “professional” and “impartial” when I am writing about the questionable holding penalties in the Cal-Auburn game?

As I sit down to write this, though, none of those drafts feel right. There’s so much to say yet also nothing at all. How do you encapsulate four years of your life in 850 cohesive words?

Now, as a senior, my bittersweet reflection on the past four years has reminded me, yet again, how lucky I am that my life has led here, in part by years of dedication and hard work, in part by sheer dumb luck.

When I look back at my college experience, it’s the smaller activities I remember. I was enjoying talking with my friends; making a sweater on the Glade; baking a cake with my roommate for no other reason than I wanted to eat some cake. I was enjoying my life.

As I’m getting ready to say goodbye, it’s difficult to believe that the girl who walked through Sather Gate for the first time four years ago is the same person seeing it for perhaps the very last time now.

I am a very different person from freshman me. I am a natural continuation of freshman me. I am because of you.

I often think about how this was supposed to be our time together now that I was older. We won’t ever get to have these moments, but throughout this year, I sought to find ways I could replicate what would make him proud.