ugh...go bears?

For those of you over 6 1/2 feet tall, this will be redundant.

Some back story:

Homeschooled throughout pre-college, I did what any self-respecting home-schooled po' family denizen could after high school: I went to Jr. College (Chabot College of Hayward, in Hayward, for those playing at home.) I didn't like it. So I dropped out, took a semester off, and went to another Jr. College (Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara.) I liked it for the first semester. And then I met Meredith and fell - pretty much - in love. My social life grew by leaps and bounds. For the math-inclined, my GPA acted pretty much the reciprocal. So I moved to Meredithville and went to another JC (Santa Rosa Junior College in - haha! no, you're wrong - Petaluma.) I liked it. The scenery and company didn't leave much to be desired, so I got to the point (finally) where transferring became an option. My non-existent GPA at Chabot (a semester of W's) and my mediocre GPA at (3.5 the first sem. and, um, 1.8 the second (see - love does make you stupid)) led me to believe that my only option would be Sonoma State. Not a bad school, I thought. Nice surroundings. But I always had this idea that I wanted to go to a UC. I discovered that SRJC had a transfer agreement program with UC Davis (in Davis), guaranteeing my acceptance if my GPA was above 3.0. Because I had done a gooder job at SRJC, I qualified for this. Then I got the idea that I'd try - not very hard, because I figured my chances of acceptance were hovering just slightly above nil - to get into Cal (in California.) Per my luck, I ran into all kinds of snags. A transfer counselor steered me wrong, failing to inform that a class I needed was available only during the current semester (last fall), which information I found out 2/3 of the way into said semester. Consequently, I had 1 out of the 4 major prep requirements necessary to study English at Berkeley. According to the guy from Berkeley (Keith Schoon, in Berkeley), I needed a really strong essay to supplant my incomplete prep work and slightly-marred (by that 1.8, in Santa Barbara) GPA. Needless to say, my hopes were not set too high.

And that brings us to today, April 29, the day when UCB (in Berkeley) informs the would-be transfer students (in various other places) as to whether they have been accepted or not. Knowing that I had a guarantee transfer to UC Davis (in Chicago), I hadn't put too much stock into Berkeley's decision. Still: when I read the words:

Dear Michael,

On behalf of the University community, it is my honor to offer you admission to Berkeley!

I was slightly dumbfounded, a little bit nervous, and more than a shade excited. So there it is: my little league dream has come true, the A's won the pennant, we landed on the moon, and I'm going to Cal.