It takes courage to get into journalism.
It takes courage, as a sophomore, to apply to be a Viewpoint columnist.
It takes even more courage to recover from the rejection and then, the next quarter, apply for News.
Being brave is something all of us journalists are familiar with. I walked around the ruins of a Malibu church while the California wildfires were still raging less than a mile away. I climbed to the top of a frat house so I could have a better view of the police investigating a potential sniper (false alarm ““ turns out it was a kid playing with a crossbow). I spent a night in a cop car, following the university police while they made traffic stops and took me on a personal tour of the steam tunnels.
It takes courage to join the editorial board as a lowly reporter, to be sitting with all the top editors and fight over whose turn it is to write.
It takes courage to take on the mantle of “official obituary writer,” to pick up the phone and call the families and close friends of the recently deceased, and ask if they maybe have a photo we could run with the story.
It takes courage to climb out onto the roof of Kerckhoff Hall and drink a toast to the new editor-in-chief with everyone else (sorry, maintenance.)
Actually, a lot of things we do in the office are potential hazards we have to overcome. The bacteria on the News couch has probably developed into a whole new strain of supervirus, but we sleep there anyway. The flickering, ancient monitors are a definite threat to our sight, but we go ahead and spend hours every day writing and editing. We eat Panda Express on a daily basis, even though all of our internal organs are probably coated with white rice and the goo from orange chicken at this point.
It takes courage to tell your family, “Why yes, I’m interning at the Los Angeles Times! Yes, the one that just went bankrupt.” As we toured the building the first day, our guide kept showing us where sections used to be. It was sad. There are entire areas that are completely empty now. As an intern, I actually had my own cubicle and computer. And when my computer wasn’t working, I just picked one of the many, many other empty ones to work on.
It takes courage to work in News for two years and then be asked to take over the section that initially rejected you. But I did. I was happy to do it. I’ve loved my time in Viewpoint, just as I loved my time in News. I also loved the training I did for Photo and DBTV. Staying in the office until 6 a.m. to edit film from a basketball game did not require courage, exactly, but it definitely wasn’t easy to do.
It takes courage to hire interns, to realize their future at the paper is in your hands. It’s hard to put into words how much the paper has meant to you, how it’s become your home away from home, your family, how it’s defined your college experience. All you want is for them to love it the way you do. Some of them won’t. Some will leave after just a couple of columns, citing school or another job ““ but some of them will stay, and it is truly a joy to watch their stake in the paper grow, and to know you’re leaving it in good hands.
But it’s not just those kinds of bravery we deal with. It takes bravery to stand up for your newspaper, for your fellow staffers and for journalism as a whole. The Daily Bruin has been under fire several times this year but every time, I ““ and the rest of my friends and esteemed peers here ““ have been behind it 100 percent.
I regret nothing, not even all the bowls of Panda Express. My time at the paper defined my college experience. How else could I have mustered up the courage to ride a mechanical bull at a conference in Kansas City, Mo.? Or to be harassed by Chip (maybe Dale) at the Disneyland character breakfast at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday? What about going to a marijuana dispensary in Westwood and asking, “Could you show me how to roll a joint? We want to make an info graphic.” I had to be brave to write all my stories, and to live all of these stories.
I love this newspaper, and I’m sad to leave. But I know I have to move on. I have to be brave, one more time, for the Daily Bruin.
Roy was the 2008-2009 viewpoint editor and a news reporter from 2006 to 2008.