Throwback to 2001 – UC Berkeley

Reflecting on Happy Times

From left to right, Lucy, me, Vanessa and Leslie, fall 2001

My friend and old classmate, Lucy, sent me the picture above a few days ago completely out of the blue. It was taken back in the fall of 2001, 17 years ago when we had recently moved into Casa Joaquin Murrieta, the Latino theme house at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a very fun and memorable time. When people would ask me, what is it like to live there? I would say, It's like MTV's Real World gone Latino. Lol... It really was. We never had any shortage of drama. I had spent my freshman year living in the Unit 3 dorms in the south side of campus, which I also enjoyed, but living in an actual house in the more residential Piedmont Avenue, with other Latino students felt very comforting. I only lived there for one year, as I felt ready to move on to something different after a year. Since I was still in my coming out process, I was interested in living at Bowles Hall, the all male dorm, the following year, where I had my first sexual experience with another classmate – it was the start of many more encounters that would follow... I definitely regret not having taken more pictures back then... I make up for it with trying to take more pictures now.