Life in Berkeley
by Sara, St. Joseph Worker 2003-2004
After completing the St. Joseph Worker Program in the Twin Cities, Sara enrolled at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. Here are her reflections shortly after moving to the area in 2004.
I am living days of beautiful sunshine punctuated here and there by days or weeks of rain bringing an early spring. Last fall I spent many of my evenings over glasses of wine with my roommates reveling in the sunset view from my balcony framed by the mountains and including the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. As the rainy winter tapers off I am hoping to get back to this habit.
Other than the beauty of this place (which still shocks me on clear mornings) there are many things I find to be thankful for here. I am in my second semester of the Masters in Divinity Program, which in itself brings advantages. The classes are excellent. I had many foundational courses last semester. This semester I am getting a few more foundations covered in addition to some more specific classes, including Feminist Theologies of the Third World with Rosemary Radford Reuther. I would love to say that the classes are a breeze due to my solid self-discipline, but such is not the case. I have a tough time balancing my class work with my friends and hobbies. But nonetheless, the supportive atmosphere around here always makes me want to try harder.
In January JSTB (the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, which is my school and a member of the consortium GTU Graduate Theological Union) sent all of the first-year MDiv students to Mexico City on a two-week immersion trip. It reminded me of how I have gotten comfortable in my life here and haven’t been challenging myself as much as I should. The first day there I was sent alone (with a Jesuit guide but no other students, and then left without the guide) to spend the weekend with a family in a poor suburb of the City. The contrast of the markedly gray, cold, concrete buildings with the warm hospitality were again a reminder of my too comfortable position in the States. Even with my limited Spanish speaking skills the family and I managed to exchange some jokes and stories. A question from their sixteen-year-old daughter about discrimination against Latinos in the US caught me off-guard that Sunday afternoon. With the significant aid of two Spanish-English dictionaries we were able to have a good discussion about it. After working at Learning in Style last year it was quite an experience for me to see the other side of families (and an entire culture) that have been torn apart by economic necessity leading to undocumented immigration to the US. During the two weeks in Mexico City we had two weekend immersion trips and spent our weeks divided between seeing historical sites in the mornings and having theology and culture classes from Mexican professors in the afternoons.
Other than classes and immersions I have had many other valuable experiences this year. I went back to the CTA conference in Milwaukee for a second time. The experience held two-fold value in both the conference itself and the group of six women with whom I traveled who have become some of my closest friends and supports here—in addition of course to my five wonderful housemates who have become like family and with whom I spend many hours hashing out theological issues. I was also able to travel to the LA Religious Education Congress conference which is the largest single gathering of Catholics in the US. The sessions were wonderful and are helping me learn to live my sometimes contradicting values of change in the institutional Church and tolerance and love for those of my more traditional sisters and brothers in the community. This seems to be the perpetual struggle and a good point for growth for me.
So this is the long and short of my life here. I send out lots of love and thanks to the CSJ community for all the mentoring and support I received last year which has allowed me to continue following my own vocational path. I do think of you all often and miss you and the space I was able to share with you for a year. So I send my prayers to you and hope for the same in return.
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