As my time as an undergraduate comes to a close, I find myself stumbling into more revelations about the college experience than ever before. Yet, very few of these moments of extreme clarity match the most prominent revelation of my freshman year: Nothing ever truly prepares you for college. Contrary to the claims of textbook publishers or impassioned high school teachers, the levels of fundamental growth and transformation that happen as an undergraduate is a phenomenon that cannot be taught in classrooms.

I came to this realization absentmindedly in the spring of my freshman year, when I had been summoned to a secret meeting with two of the Black community’s most popular activists. Apprehensive yet eager, I had mistakenly assumed that this meeting of shadows would begin with my introduction to psychedelic mushrooms and end with the three of us forming a team of young anti-racism activists people could lovingly call “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Three Musketeers.” Alas none of this transpired: Hearing of my emerging interest in politics and on-campus activism, the two upperclassmen approached me to see if I would join either UC Berkeley’s Black Student Union or another passionate progressive coalition of students. Seeking to explore Blackness further, I decided to join the BSU.

Yet in making my decision to join the BSU, I was stricken by a wonderful realization: All my years of preparation for college could never anticipate the day-to-day intricacies of the undergraduate experience. No amount of math tests or AP classes or book reports could’ve ever prepared me for a secret meeting that would mark the beginning of my career in student activism. Now, as I prepare myself for life beyond this campus, I have assembled five tips to help intellectually hungry, pizza-addicted undergraduates much like my younger self better experience the joys of UC Berkeley:

1) Listen to Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” at least three times per week: This elegant hip hop treatise outlining the struggle of balancing spiritual enlightenment with material success. It is certain to both motivate you to excel on a challenging assignment while reminding you to remain level-headed amid the pressures of UC Berkeley. More of a lyrical life motto than a song, this work from everyone’s favorite aspiring fashion zealot and pop culture maverick’s third album is guaranteed to help you with midterms, job interviews and more.

2) Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself: As you pursue an elite education that will cause you to question traditions and the ways in which the world is perceived, internal conflict as well as conflict with those around you is likely to arise. Varying in levels of difficulty, these challenges are normal and essential to an individual’s growth as a person and an intellectual. Be it challenging sexism at the family cookout or managing a stressful set of courses, these trials are certain to come about as UC Berkeley and your peers expand the ways you think about race, class, gender and the multitude of other features fundamental to the world around us.

3) You have community at UC Berkeley: Despite its size and the issues that come with being Black in a primarily non-Black space, the Black community at UC Berkeley is full of loving and supportive people. A thoughtful incubator for many identities, the Black community at UC Berkeley will certainly enable you to explore what Blackness is both as an abstract concept and a lived reality. Additionally, there are a plethora of other communities to explore and appreciate beyond the Black community on campus; be they related to a major or an extracurricular passion, there exists a variety of groups for you to partake in depending on whatever your passions and paper deadlines are.

4) Don’t be afraid to be heard: As UC Berkeley’s Black Student Union and the Student Labor Committee recent victories demonstrate, the dynamic activism UC Berkeley is known for is much less a product of the administration’s policies and more the efforts of passionate, hard-working students and allies committed to challenging systems of domination and exploitative practices. Despite its liberal aspirations, UC Berkeley is still embedded in a society rife with oppression, and exploring the nuances of these oppressions and how they manifest on campus is a great way to expand your knowledge of the world and impress or alienate your friends from your hometown.

5) Don’t wait — plan to procrastinate: Procrastination is nature’s way of reminding college students they still have some free will; as such, instead of attempting to outright avoid this impulse — simply incorporate it into your schedules and routines. In planning to procrastinate, you lessen the potential for procrastination to become truly disastrous and increase its propensity as a method of self-care in a world where stress and Netflix go hand in hand.

I must note that I am neither a shiny-toothed self-help guru nor is this list in any way a comprehensive outline for dealing with the variety of challenges UC Berkeley throws at it is students. To truly prepare, one must always maintain an open mind and be willing to embrace challenges as they come. In the end, there’s nothing quite like being Black at UC Berkeley.

Spencer Simpson writes the Friday column on Blackness at UC Berkeley. Contact him at [email protected].