Berkeley Bound 2

I’m going to UC Berkeley! Applied Mathematics, whatever that is. And now—I’m not sure what comes next.

I wrote—promised myself—once, in A Time-Variant Vector Field,^[1] that the greatest achievement of my life will not be getting into a good college. And now I’m a student at the ninth-best school in the world and the best in the world for startup-starting… which means I’m not making following through on my promises easy for myself. Obviously that’s a good thing and a bad thing.

Wow: much nuance. I almost sound like politicians when asked a difficult question: “It’s, uh, it’s good, but it can also be bad, right? Also I touch kids.”

Anyways, jokes aside, I’m in a weird place. Nervous. Excited. Scared, anxious, Spin-the-Bottle-with-adjectives-in-the-Merriam-Webster-dictionary. I grew up in Berkeley; I shouldn’t be feeling this way about coming home.

I remember attending Berkeley Math Circle^[2] one summer when I was barely old enough to walk, thinking that “algebra” was something scary (now I’m older and wiser: I know group theory is the real scary thing) at the start of one week and thinking it was about as cool as polar bears in Arctic winters by the end of it. I’d see it everywhere: driving home from camp, I’d calculate how long the drive would take at the current speed (I didn’t know the distance, so I’d make up a random distance that made the travel time seem about right. Eight-year-olds, right?). Algebra showed me a new way of seeing the world… and the same happened when I learned linear algebra, calculus, discrete math. Maybe it’s an inherent property of mathematics that every branch teaches you something beautiful about the universe we live in.

Maybe I’m philosophizing too much. I can’t wait to learn math at Berkeley again.

But still: this whole college thing is nerve-wracking, and I’ve driven robots at the World Championship. A week ago I nearly made the news at my first driving lesson and I still barely know how to launder clothes. If anything, I’m better at laundering money than my dirty clothes… so I’m nervous. But I’m reassured by the people around me. My girlfriend (!!!!!!) is going to Berkeley as an Applied Math major with me, and I’ve already met so many people I know I can look to for advice. Reid, my teachers, my friends—I have them to thank for where I am today. (And my parents too, I guess, bro.)

Marcus.

Nervous. But excited. I think Berkeley is the best place I could’ve ended up, and I know I’ll make the most of what God (or rather: the individual behaviours of every particle in the universe, taken together as a whole) has granted me. Pick up a pen, start writing, so to speak.

Many emotions. Many people to thank, many people yet to meet. Four years of experiences, memories, and a new chapter in my life.

Getting into Berkeley is not the last you’ll hear from me.
bn.