By Ryan Johnson
It’s waking up every morning in warm cozy sheets, questioning if Marcus Aurelius was wrong.
It’s making the first cup of caffeine to get you through the day.
It’s biking to the LBNL shuttle where you hope you get to place it on the front rack.
It’s admiring the view of the Bay blanketed in early morning fog.
It’s writing an overly ambitious to-do list.
It’s beginning on a project due tomorrow that you meant to have started last week.
It’s starting to run an experiment now so that you’ll have results by the afternoon’s meeting.
It’s the wind in your face riding down the hill to make it to your first class.
It’s being thankful for Berkeley time.
It’s feeling old at 28 starting a part time Masters program.
It’s the second ride back up the LBNL shuttle to make it to your next meeting.
It’s taking a late lunch.
It’s hastily made slides.
It’s an awkward presentation.
It’s a request for more data.
It’s questioning if you ever knew what you were doing in the first place.
It’s wondering why you got hired at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
It’s doubting that you should have been accepted to UC Berkeley.
It’s knowing there are better Mechanical Engineers that could take your place.
It’s the second cup of caffeine.
It’s a workout at an overcrowded RSF.
It’s a homemade dinner that cooks while you study.
It’s maintaining good sleep hygiene.
It’s a time when days seem long but years seem short.
It’s acing your midterms.
It’s new friends that inspire you to try new things.
It’s meeting the next person to revolutionize tech before they even know it themselves.
It’s staying in contact with old friends.
It’s getting hit by a truck on the corner of Shattuck and Hearst in broad daylight.
It’s someone whose name you’ll never know making sure you’re okay.
It’s a bumpy ride to Kaiser.
It’s no broken bones.
It’s Flowers for Algernon.
It’s sensitivity to light, sound, and thinking.
It’s tanking your finals because you can’t think straight.
It’s needing 6 weeks of concussion symptoms before they will refer you to a neurologist.
It’s somehow still passing your classes.
It’s not taking FMLA when you should have because the paperwork is confusing.
It’s not being able to drink caffeine because that makes the concussion symptoms worse.
It’s winter break with record breaking snow in Tahoe while I’m recuperating.
It’s finally being able to see a neurologist.
It’s new medications.
It’s new physical therapy.
It’s new.
It’s trying to write with your non-dominant hand.
It’s dinners in the dining commons.
It’s a semester where you start out failing.
It’s overrelying on AI to finish your assignments.
It’s your medication running out the week of midterms and not being able to get a refill in time. It’s tanking your midterms.
It’s spring break.
It’s asking your professors if you should medically withdraw.
It’s believing them that they won’t outright fail you.
It’s trusting in yourself that you can pull through.
It’s missing your grandfather’s 90th birthday to study for finals.
It’s somehow passing your classes.
It’s summer break.
It’s being medically cleared by your neurologist.
It’s free time where you only have to work your full time job.
It’s rediscovering everything you loved.
It’s scuba diving in Monterey and the Channel Islands.
It’s dancing at the Starry Plough.
It’s live music at the Greek Theater.
It’s the second year of school.
It’s new faces that quickly become fast friends.
It’s getting your first choice capstone project.
It’s trial and error.
It’s reading papers until you’ve lost sense of time in the library.
It’s finding out the novel idea you had was already done last year.
It’s learning the next idea you had was already done in the 1960’s.
It’s a work trip to Sweden for your first conference and paper.
It’s going to taco Tuesdays and calling it networking.
It’s the longest US government shutdown in history, but your program still has funding.
It’s searching for a job in the private sector, but only seeing layoffs at every tech company.
It’s the AI coming for your livelihood.
It’s a winter break with record low snow in Tahoe wondering why I bought an Ikon pass.
It’s the start of the final semester.
It’s knowing graduation is coming faster and faster.
It’s getting coffee with an alumnus who convinces you to take Lean Launchpad from Haas.
It’s planning your first startup.
It’s finding out someone is already doing your startup idea.
It’s signing up for an AI hackathon.
It’s staying up late to finish an abstract submission only for it to get rejected.
It’s your 30th birthday looming, and you question where two years have gone.
It’s feeling like you’ve nothing to show for it.
It’s the journey not the destination.
It’s life in tech.