Reflecting on My UC Berkeley Experience
Class of 2022
“I just graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology”
Spring, 2020 - The email had been delivered into my inbox. I knew it was there, I’d seen the notification, and I waited ever so impatiently for my mom to get home so I could share the news with her - good or bad, the decision that would shape the next few years of my life sat, waiting for me until I was good and ready to open it. I had already received a couple of acceptances, so I knew that I had options and opportunities for attaining my education regardless, but sitting at my desk and clicking on the link titled “An update has been made to your application portal” was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life (aside from graduate school admissions, but that’s a whole different story).
Now, if you were watching a movie of my life, this would be the moment where all the clips from my two years as a transfer student at UC Berkeley would fly by fast-forward style, and land on me typing this blog post as I reflect on the fact that I just graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology! - and that’s why I’m here! Now that I have settled into my summer routine, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this experience, but where to start?...
The first thing I want to say is that I did not think this was going to happen.
Katie circa 2011
When I was freshly graduated from high school, 18 years old with no idea what I was doing with my life, college was an inconceivable notion to me - especially as I had nearly failed out of high school and subsequently didn’t bother applying to any colleges. I had little to no understanding of the higher education system, what I would want to study, and was convinced I was not capable of being a successful student. Truthfully, the only thing that actually spurred me into going to college was the FOMO I felt watching my friends go to community college while I had settled on taking a gap year to rest and recover from high school.
To go from that reluctant community college student stumbling my way through classes to graduating with honors from a university such as UC Berkeley AND be headed for graduate school on a scholarship is still mind-boggling to me. But it’s not just the fact that I graduated - that I actually completed my degree - but all of the experiences that I picked up along the way that truly mean the world to me.
Those experiences were more than just classes, get togethers with friends, or late night study sessions, they were moments and challenges that have helped me grow as a person and a student, which is why it has been so hard to say goodbye to my undergraduate alma mater:
Berkeley was a place of firsts for me:
My first time living away from my hometown in my first solo apartment
My first time participating in actual research
My first time having a meaningful career
My first time having complete control and initiative over my schedule, my goals, and choices
My first time applying to graduate school
While my community college experience is and always will be incredibly important and invaluable to me and my academic journey, transferring to a university like UC Berkeley was, in retrospect, the step I needed to take to better realize my potential as an individual and an academic. The challenges I came up against in my coursework not only developed my critical writing and thinking skills, but made me realize what it is I am truly passionate about in research. Living in another city made me appreciate the world beyond the thresholds of my little hometown, and has prepared me for the challenges ahead of me as I move to the other side of the country for graduate school and start all over again when it comes to finding my comfort zones, making friends, and defining my educational experience. The fact that I have done it before, because of Berkeley, tells me that I know I’ll be able to do it again.
Aside from the personal growth I experienced along the way at Cal, what has been the most important, the most defining aspect of my education is the way I learned to think about Anthropology. I came into my transfer experience with an arguably romanticized vision of what the fields of anthropology and archaeology were and how I could participate in them. The Anthropology department at Cal, being made up of some of the most incredible researchers in the field, actively challenged that romanticized fairytale and revealed to me the intricacies and nuances of anthropology as a discipline.
It educated me in the ways that anthropology has been used as a tool of oppression, but has also shown how the field has been actively fighting to change and become a meaningful and impactful area of study to the world. It taught me to actively question the world around me, while showing me how studying things from the most humanistic of perspectives can help us answer those questions and find solutions to those humanistic problems. These are lessons I will carry with me through my graduate studies and beyond.
I am excited to ground my future research from that anthropological, humanistic perspective, because to me, anthropological materials are meaningful BECAUSE of the humanistic properties behind them. Whether I’m performing archaeology in the field, or handling delicate garments in a museum, it’s the person behind those items, that material culture, that matters.
I know that UC Berkeley has given me everything it could, and then some, and I would not be the academic nor the person that I am today without it.
Next up: New York City!