By Phuong Tran

Like thousands of college students in America, I’ll admit that the biggest reason I chose to go to UC Berkeley was because it was four hundred miles from home. I wanted freedom. I wanted to be grown-up. I wanted to experience things that I couldn’t experience from living in Los Angeles for the first twenty years of my life. And Berkeley certainly didn’t disappoint, but not in the way I had expected.

I had a boyfriend living in San Jose back then, and it shortened my road trips to see him from six hours down to one hour. We were a year and a half into our long-distance relationship and tried to see each other monthly, so the idea of seeing him more often thrilled me to no end. Imagine my dismay when he broke up with me only two days before I finished moving.

For two weeks, I had to force myself out of the apartment. It was difficult because I didn’t know anyone in town except for high school classmates with whom I wasn’t very close friends. I missed my family more than I had anticipated, and I called them often. Friends from back home called and messaged me with love and support, but what I really wanted more than anything was a hug.

Then something strange happened.

After getting a cute haircut one day, I got off the 51 bus line and was ready to trudge back to my apartment. Another female Cal student got off the same stop as I did, and when she noticed I was walking behind her, she asked if she could walk with me. “I always feel safer walking with someone,” she said cheerily, “and you look like a really nice person!”

Vivian and I fell into conversation and learned that we only lived a block away from each other. “That’s great!” she said. “We live so close that we should really hang out sometime! Do you have plans tonight? My friends and I are playing laser tag in the city tonight. You should come with us!”

I had been scared about being social with total strangers, but with my cute haircut, I wanted as many people to see it as possible. So I went and had an amazing time playing laser tag with over forty wonderful strangers, and they all hugged me before we departed for the night.

As depressed as I was the first two weeks in Berkeley, I had to thank the ex for breaking up with me when he did. That night with Vivian and her friends prompted me to more chances and make unforgettable, unregrettable memories at Berkeley for the next year and a half before I graduated. My only lament is that I had chosen to graduate a semester early.

College is a strikingly unique time in a person’s life and presents advantages and obstacles one can’t really experience at any other time in their lives. Be open to new experiences and ideas. Seize every opportunity. Make new connections with people.

Try the short, new haircut that makes you want to show it off to everyone.

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