Taking some time to reflect back on the Oct 7th Walkout, I end up coming to a state of mixed feelings. As far as the protests go, I think it was great that people stood for what they believe in. Especially since there is this portrayal that college aged students often don’t have their voices heard. What drew me to this school were the voices of the students. I remember visiting the campus and seeing so many students running for elections and all of the organizations constantly pushing for new members (although, I actually dislike it now).
There’s a part of me that wants to join in on protests like these but I often feel like the ultimate purpose isn’t completely clear. When asking people why they join in, it seems like some don’t even have a clear purpose. Rather, they seem to just join in because someone told them to. Walking down campus during these protests also gives me a feeling of bitterness. In both protests I heard fire alarms. What this means was that there was an intentional pulling of the fire alarm to gain attention. Ultimately, this disturbs classes and especially for those that were in the middle of examinations. Personally, pulling the fire alarms was simply taking it too far.
To add to the bitterness, I also heard the protesters enter the library. For me, that was actually quite annoying. I had exams during the week of the protest and to have the protesters disturb me during a session of studying was more than I could handle. But this bitterness definitely doesn’t make me want to wish the protest(s) never occurred. It’s nice to have since it makes my experience here at Berkeley much more memorable.
~D.B.
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