UCLA is the entire world for many of us. We eat and sleep here,
we rarely leave and we stubbornly insist there’s nothing
wrong with this.
But I have to admit that when I haven’t eaten real food or
conversed with anyone over age 25 in months, there is something
wrong.
With this in mind, I want to find out how this isolation can
happen to a student here, and how I can whip myself into shape.
Maybe someone can learn from my mistakes.
Like most of us, I arrived at this school with my parents
““ but I stayed here without them. This is pretty typical of
what most students here do once they come to college.
There’s nothing wrong with leaving behind an old life to
start fresh. Starting over is a rite of passage for college
students everywhere, and most of us have plenty of awkward and
pubescent experiences back home we’d just as soon leave
behind.
This process is healthy. It lets you define who you will be for
the rest of your life (so you’re not stuck with what you
thought was cool in high school) and make friends and enemies that
will last you many years.
This is healthy ““ but it can be taken too far.
My grandmother died over the weekend. I was sad, not only
because of her death, but also because I had hardly even gotten to
know her ““ and not because she didn’t want to see me.
Not because she lived back in Russia.
She lived in Los Angeles. She always wanted me to visit more.
But I was always too busy.
Now, looking back, I can honestly say I hardly know the woman
who helped in so many ways to get me where I am today.
Just imagine what kind of knowledge is gone when someone dies.
Just imagine all the experiences you’ll never know.
Yes, college is a chance to make new beginnings, but college is
also a chance to explore. Instead of stagnating in the enclosed
community of UCLA, we need to create an exchange with the world
around us.
My grandma used to attend UC Berkeley when student fees were
less than $20 a class. She must have had so many great stories to
tell ““ about Berkeley and about the world in general.
I’ve come to realize that almost everyone has some of these
stories.
It’s time UCLA became just another part of the world we
live in. College, after all, is supposed to prepare us to live in
the outside world.
In talking with friends and peers, I’ve realized that for
all our learning in classes and reading, we’re really not
learning all that much.
So here’s what we, and I, have to do: escape once in a
while. Take a Monday off to spend the weekend with a relative. Just
tell your professors you’re on a school-related field trip.
Tell them you’re going to finally learn something.
Tell your professors you’ve decided that life can’t
always be bottled in books. Then tell them what you’ve
learned.
Do it before it’s too late.
There are so many incredible experiences to be had out in the
world. Don’t let them slip through the cracks. Don’t
let time swallow them up until there are none left.
I have one grandma left ““ maybe she’d like to hear
from me.
Schenck is a first-year undeclared student. E-mail him at
jschenck@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.