University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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four Pulitzer Prize winners, 95 i.bers of the National Academy of Sciences. 56 members of the National Academy of Engineering, more Guggenheim I Hlowship and Presidential Young investigators than any other university in the country this is UC Berkeley, per haps one of the finest universities in the world Educating the top 125 percent of the state ' s high school seniors, Cal is , a first choice among other Bay Area institutions from Si.inford to San Jose State and even among colleges state- .ind nation wide As students at this large and diverse uni versity, the sky (and a savings account) is the limit

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i nree ake Four I iling through the massive oak doors of Wheeler Hall are aporoximately 70 million intelligent and capable students. A tiny speck near what looks like a miniature podium is speaking about his (or her?) interpretation of the sociological basis of gender. Frantic note-taking begins . . . this is DC Berkeley, perhaps one of the me ' intimidating and complex universities in the world. Between standing in line at 120 Sproul and trying to find the Earth Sciences Building a Cal freshman may find him or herself completely lost in the maze of this enormous repository of both learning and people. And how can you avoid feeling insignificant when everyone keeps asking to see your reg. card? Take Four H lelp! I ' m drowning in a sea of excellence amidst diversity! Just as the whole is not merely the sum of its parts, neither is DC Berkeley merely a fun place to live and a school that will look good on your resume. Nor is it always a cold and frightening institution. In my high school days, I saw Berkeley as the Emerald City of Oz. There was beauty and wildness in the little town and I felt awestruck by the immense university so highly acclaimed and impressive with its rows of white stone steps gracing every building. My friends and I would enter its gates as tourists to buy funky clothes at Aaarkvark ' s (now Shark ' s) and im- port records at Leopold ' s and Rasputin ' s. Dur- ing those trips wandering down Telegraph Av- enue eating pizza from Blondie ' s I realized that Cal was my destiny. The university and the town sang their interweaving siren songs and beckoned for me to take part in the grand adventure. My Yellow Brick Road was paved with SAT and achievement test scores, GPA ' s and tran- scripts. The forks in the road were many, and I nearly lost my way several times. But once here, with Oz in sight, I found myself caught in a field of sleep-inducing pop- pies. The banes of freshman year that were barely hinted at in the orientation material such as homesickness, stress, and time misman- agement settled in for the duration. The con- cept of being caught up in my classes was unheard of to me. And God forbid the pos- sibility of a social life! Where was the Good Witch of the North when you needed her? I think that this semester Glenda ' s resur- recting snowfall has come in the form of Cal itself. The isolation can be escaped. After all, there are over 35,000 other students here. Even a suburban misfit like myself can find a quasi- home-like environment in this sprawling insti- tutional morass. From the Greek system to political associations to support organizations for every minority group under the sun, Cal does reach its tentacles out into the community of students which it harbors. Sure, you have to go out and find the Wicked Witch ' s broom, but it ' s not as difficult as the typical Kansas wanderer might think. Wait in a few lines, that ' s all. The Wicked Witch has been melted but there ' s still no place like home. Luckily, I have two homes how. The people I love are at my parent ' s house, but the place I love is Berkeley. It ' s both the People ' s Republik of Berzerkeley and a world-reknown university. Four years (or so) from now, with a bachelor ' s degree as my ruby slippers, I can return to Kansas if I wish. Or maybe I ' ll stay in Oz . . . 8 FALL