Thank You Berkeley!

Dear Berkeley,

“The ironic tragedy is that life has to be lived forward but only makes sense in reverse.”

Looking back at my four years here, that line feels truer than ever.

When I first arrived as a freshman, I thought of you as just a stepping stone. If I’m being honest, I wanted to get into Stanford, and I saw you as the consolation prize. But life has a funny way of humbling you and shaping you. These past four years have been the most transformative years of my life, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

I’m sorry for being so ungrateful at the start, for not appreciating you the way I should have. I wish I had known then how precious every moment was. I should have savored each late-night study session, every walk across campus, the quiet moments, and the chaotic ones. I should have embraced it all with open arms instead of waiting for something else.

I’ve learned so much here—not just in lectures or labs, but in life itself. If there’s one overarching lesson, it’s this: God is good. I used to worry endlessly about declaring CS, internships, and the future. But I’ve learned to let go of that burden. Worry doesn’t solve anything; trust does. Trust in God, trust in the process, and trust that what’s meant to be will be. I’m not perfect at it yet, but I’m learning to handle worry better and lean into faith more. That’s a lesson I want to carry with me for the rest of my life.

Before coming here, I had this vision of college shaped by my favorite sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory-one tight-knit friend group, endless adventures, and a storybook kind of life where every night is "legend - wait for it - dary". But you taught me that real life isn’t like that. Friendships ebb and flow like the tides. People come and go. And at the end of the day, nothing replaces family. I’ve learned to be my true self: the witty, quirky, and unapologetically passionate me who loves dreaming up ideas, building websites, and talking endlessly about tech products.

That said, I am so grateful for the friendships I made here—the ones that turned “study sessions” into café hopping marathons where we mostly talked instead of studied, the spontaneous dinners that reminded me to pause and enjoy the moment, and the endless hours spent debugging operating systems or building products that somehow never felt like work when we were doing it together. Those moments made this journey special and unforgettable.

If you had told me before this year that I’d ever want to live anywhere besides New York, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the truth is, I’m going to miss Berkeley—especially in the fall. There’s something magical about this place: the wooden houses, the flowers, the crisp air on Northside, and the fairy-tale feeling of walking through Piedmont or Clark Kerr. It’s a beauty that’s hard to put into words but impossible to forget. You are to me what Stars Hollow is to Lorelai Gilmore.

To some extent, I know I’m going to regret graduating a semester early. There’s a bittersweetness in leaving this chapter behind sooner than I need to. But at the same time, I’m excited for what’s ahead—for the adventures, challenges, and opportunities waiting for me beyond these familiar streets.

So, thank you Berkeley for everything. For the good and the bad, because both have shaped me into who I am today. I’ll carry this place in my heart as I move forward to live my post-grad adventure at TBD (not ready to announce it yet!).

Life only makes sense in reverse. And through it all, I’ll keep this truth close: God is good.

With gratitude,
Jiro Noor