It’s the middle of the semester, and those 20 units you enrolled in overambitiously aren’t playing around anymore. Your clubs now somehow require eight hours of commitment a week, and your meal prep ingredients are shoved to the back of your freezer, under the mountain of your weekly rotation of frozen meals. Along with the flu, the homesickness bug is officially circulating on campus.

With home-cooked meals, sleeping in your own bed and cuddling your family pet in mind, a trip home has never sounded sweeter. Your morale is at an all-time low, so perhaps it’s time to pay a visit to the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. Here are some tips to become a professional Oakland Airport camper as you prepare for your flight home.

Wear UC Berkeley merch

A UC Berkeley student’s go-to uniform at the airport is a UC Berkeley hoodie, gray sweatpants and headphones. It’s comfy, practical and perfect for sitting in that cramped middle seat on your budget flight home. Beyond wanting to be comfortable for your flight, there’s always that underlying pride — and maybe some smugness — in walking around and showing everyone which school you go to. It’s only natural to want to exude that Golden Bear pride.

But remember, when you’re tearfully taking your return flight to Oakland, wear your UC Berkeley merch again so you can catch a ride-hail with other UC Berkeley students you meet at the airport. Splitting the cost is a win-win scenario that also comes with a new friend.

Get work done before your flight

The airport is the one place where you definitely don’t want to arrive on Berkeley Time. If you’ve ever taken a ride-hail to the airport, especially during high-traffic periods, you know you have to leave well in advance to ensure you make your flight on time. It’s always better to be early than to rush through the TSA line, praying you aren’t the unlucky random person flagged for additional testing when your plane is already boarding. While you wait for your flight, you could finish schoolwork or search for an internship on Handshake. Try to get as much work done as you can before you go home, because once you land, bCourses will be the last thing on your mind.

A nice view with comfortable seating is located in Terminal 2, right next to Subway. It’s the perfect spot to live out that airport aesthetic, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Bay where you can watch planes take off and land over the water. The area has reclining and regular seating, outlets to charge those overheated computers and ample space to spread out your weekend luggage. Don’t forget to take full advantage of the Oakland Airport’s complimentary Wi-Fi as you hunker down for your wait.

Download readings or homework before you board

At this point in the semester, you are probably at least five mandatory readings behind. The usual plane activity is to download movies to pass the time, but as UC Berkeley students, it seems as if the workload is never-ending. To lighten your guilty conscience, download your readings onto your device so you can read them on the plane. This way, you can multitask by enjoying your complimentary beverage and snack as you play catch-up on your work.

A bonus option is to download your readings as an audio file, which allows you to listen and take in the views from the sky. The plane could get very loud, so listening to the sleep-inducing sounds of your reading will surely drown out the loud hum of the plane. Trust me, it will be one of the best lock-in sessions of the semester thus far.

Rub 4.0 Ball before your trip

You might initially laugh at this next tip, but it’s specifically aimed at all my fellow nervous flyers who start praying the moment the plane starts to experience any form of turbulence. I’ve been in that position countless times, and it honestly never gets any easier. Leaving the Bay Area can come with a lot of in-flight scaries, especially with its unpredictable weather.

Now, we all know the famous 4.0 Ball, the one that UC Berkeley students rub before an exam for an extra boost of luck. But why must the luck stop there? If the lucky ball soothes nervous exam takers, surely it can also provide some extra comfort for our nervous flyers. So before you leave campus for the airport, take a few seconds to pass by the 4.0 Ball on your way back from the library and let the good luck and steady vibes carry you through those in-flight bumps.

Talk to your seat partner

Let’s bring back talking to (friendly) strangers. Nowadays, many airlines — like Southwest — preassign your seat before you board. Before you dismiss your seatmate, take the time to consider that you might be sitting next to someone really interesting. Since you’re departing from Oakland Airport, there’s a good chance that your seat partners are UC Berkeley alumni, current students or even renowned UC Berkeley professors.

Drawing from personal experience, I’ve sat next to people I’ve had really meaningful conversations with — ones that started because they saw that I was wearing my UC Berkeley merch. On my last flight, the person I talked to gave me great spontaneous advice on my future career path. This proves you truly never know who you might meet on a plane.

Now, with a list full of advice in your luggage pocket, you can stroll through the Oakland Airport without a worry because you’re a professional now. Take the time to relax, enjoy your flight and be ready to come back to Berkeley feeling rejuvenated and ready to push toward the second half of the semester. Remember to finish some work while you’re at the airport … or just watch a movie instead. I’m not judging.