If spotting a gecko brings good luck, as is believed around some of these parts, then I’m in for a treat. I woke up this morning with one on my arm.

A question I’ve been asked repeatedly since I arrived from Berkeley, and that I don’t know how to accurately answer, is what I learned there and how it’s going to change what I do. The simple answer is: it isn’t.

I gave up a dream opportunity in order to go to Berkeley, and so I’m asked often if I regret that. I don’t. But, let’s be honest, if that opportunity never falls into my lap again, I will mourn it.

I surprised many when I said I was going to return to India and continue freelancing, because given the opportunity to work with some great publications in America, why on earth would someone not take it?

Maybe that’s because many consider freelancing journalism’s stepchild. Maybe because some consider working in India less of an opportunity than working in America. I don’t. Clearly.

The Visiting Scholar experience was different for each one of us. One VS who is interested in business reporting got the chance to travel to New York City and meet editors from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, etc. Another has become experienced in broadcast, one is now shifting course from writing to photography, yet another is now fully trained in multimedia.

I don’t think the way I work or approach journalism has changed at all. If anything, for me it was reinforcement of what I’ve doing all along, and thankfully, been doing right. What I did take away from my experience in Berkeley was something that will help me much more in the long-term: a look into many different worldviews.

Every week, as we discussed events in the news, we got to hear many different points of views, of people from China, Burma, Pakistan, Iran, Finland, France, Indonesia, Denmark, and India. People who’ve spent their entire lives studying certain countries– North Korea and Japan, for instance — came and spoke to us. In North Korea’s case, it went much beyond what we find in news reports and has deeply contributed to my understanding of the current situation.

It’s not hard to learn how to take a decent photograph or shoot video, and I am, indeed self-taught (and I keep learning), but it is of immense help when journalists take you behind their stories and talk to you not only about how they found them and reported them, but how they then handled the fallout from them: lawsuits, arrested sources, etc.

In addition to all that, the biggest thing I found in Berkeley was confidence. Or as Sam likes to say, “It’s not that hard!”

That’s the most important thing I learned in Berkeley: It’s not that hard.

To me, that lesson makes the entire year and any dream opportunities I gave up, worth it.