Goodbye y’all
My name is Carlos Guadarrama, and I’m second year student at UC Merced.
As I’m sure you have heard, on Nov. 4 there was a tragic incident that took place on our campus.
Something that deeply concerns me is the way many people have begun to, from my perspective, come to the wrong conclusions about the campus I’ve come to love and the community I call my family without asking those who live here their opinion. With that said, I hope you don’t mind if I offer you my take on life at UC Merced following the incident, and what I believe the future holds for us as Bobcats.
This is my second year here in the Central Valley studying political science, and I have done my best to make Merced a place to call home. Having arrived here knowing quite literally no one, I feel welcomed on our campus, and furthermore like to think myself as someone who contributes to our community in a positive, constructive way. That said, I join the thousands of students on our campus who do so day after day. I believe I’m a better person as a direct result of interacting with the friends I have made and the knowledge and the experiences I am accumulating here at UC Merced.
Still, despite all that, I cannot lie and say there wasn’t a sense of security that was lost last week, but what I can say is that we are fighting tooth and nail to reclaim it. Already our student body has mobilized like never before: showing up in the earliest hours of the morning to accompany affected students across our bridge, decorating our campus with ribbons and words of encouragement, meeting and organizing a vigil in a day’s time to which thousands of community members attended. Bobcats have come together to make us whole again.
So perhaps what I want to convey is that I know my words alone won’t convince you of our community’s strength and compassion … but perhaps their actions will … because even after what’s happened I won’t ever regret being a Bobcat, and instead I will remain privileged and humbled to have shared in our collective unity. So with that I just wanna let y’all know that I’ll be leaving my position as an admissions marketing interns to dedicate myself to my job as a Senator- at Large. I loved working for admissions and being a source of information and help to all prospective Bobcats… regardless though… I know I’ll be seeing you around soon.
Thank you.

















