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109. What was the best day of your life so far? (05/31/2023)
The best day of my life was during Spring Break of 2022. There was no classes nor any events going on because most students went back home. I just recently came back from Los Angeles to went back home. I just recently came back from Los Angeles to Berkeley after finishing my weekend drill so I just wanted to relax without going anywhere too far.
It was a Monday morning and after finishing my breakfast, I decided to head to the university arboretum. It was sprinkling rain with grey clouds hiding the sun. I put on a light layer of sunscreen on my face, wore my windbreaker jacket, and my black umbrella from Costco. As soon as I stepped out, I barely felt the rain at all when I reached out my palm. I took off my hood, closed my umbrella, unzipped my jacket, and started walking uphill.
On the way up, I saw the university stadium from a Birdseye view and it looked beautiful with the bright green grass with thick white lines as its border. I took a short detour into the forest and almost slipped on mud if I wasn’t holding on to a tree branch. There were abandoned wood cabins occupied by turkeys flocking around. It was a huge shock seeing them in the wild making “puck puck” noises. I wondered if I could drive uphill and kidnap some of the turkeys without getting caught.
After half an hour of walking uphill, I finally reached the arboretum. I got in for free because I had my student id. There was a couple doing a wedding photoshoot in front of the rose bouquets. I stood out a bit because all the other visitors were middle-aged and in a group while you have some random dude like me all by himself in a hooded jacket. There were plants and flowers from every continent except Antarctica. My personal favorite was the Chinese and Japanese areas. They had a large pond with koi fish and a large waterfall in the back with small stone shrines. To cross the lake, you could either walk through a wooden bridge or a series of flat rocks forming a small bridge. I just sat down on a large rock and relaxed while watching the waterfall flow into the pond for 10-15 minutes. I decided to take a boomerang video of it and posted it on my Instagram story.
My next stop was the Children’s Science Museum which was 20 minutes further uphill. I viewed the city of Berkeley from the hills for a few minutes before continuing my journey. There were no sidewalks so I was walking on the edge of the road outside the white line border. I was scared of being hit by a car especially in the narrow curved sections. Luckily, only three cars passed by in the 20 minutes of walking so I was more relaxed than I was scared.
The Children’s Science Museum was a lot smaller than I expected. However, the view from the entrance of the city was beautiful. You could see the university, the Berkeley city, San Francisco and the sea separating the two. Most of the museum was filled with workshops for kids to play in. The outdoors section had large stone monuments, ponds, and wild turkeys roaming around. One of the kids almost went downhill while chasing a turkey. Luckily, his dad grabbed him before he tripped down the hill.
Feeling bored, I went further uphill which was populated by small laboratories used by UC Berkeley faculty in mathematics and aerospace engineering. I went inside most of the buildings but all individual offices were locked for Spring Break. There was nothing else further uphill so I started heading back to my dorm. On my way back, one of the girls I met at a party replied to my Instagram story. After some texting, I asked her out to the movies next Wednesday and she said Yes. After that, I ate dinner, watched some movies, and slept. I got to go on an adventure, explore new places, relax, and successfully got a date. I was on Cloud 9.
