So I’m supposed to use this space to write a goodbye, a farewell, parting words to my home for the last four years. And as I sat down to write this, I realized I had a huge problem: I hate clichés. And unless I’m able to write something really witty or extraordinarily clever ““ which I’m not ““ there is really no getting around using some sort of dreaded cliché. So now that I’m at peace with that unfortunate situation, I guess I can forge onward with some closing remarks.
Twice a week, every week, for the last two and a half years I have spent two hours walking backwards, talking to prospective UCLA students. As a tour guide, it’s been my job to help kids (and their parents) make probably the biggest decision of their short, 18-year lives: where to go to college.
After doing this with such regularity for so long, one would reasonably expect to become sick of talking about UCLA, or about answering the same question over and over. (Kid: “So what’s the difference between here and Berkeley?” Me: “Fun.”) The truth is, half the tour is usually me throwing away whatever script I might normally use and telling stories that to me just sum up everything that’s made my four years here worth remembering.
And to this day, every time we walk up to the top of Janss Steps, and I look back on Royce Quad and forward to the Hill, I get the same thrill I got the first time I walked there, on my own tour during senior year of high school. If anything, the view gets even better each time, and I can’t help but think about how lucky I am to enjoy it on a daily basis.
What some people come from the East Coast to see, or endure two hours of me blathering to experience, we just walk by every day on our way to class.
In April, I went with many of you to San Antonio for my last Final Four as a student. The Sunday after our painful loss, UCLA had planned an event for students from Texas who had just gotten into UCLA and were trying to decide when to come. I came as a student representative, and got to meet a guy who had just been accepted.
We spent about an hour talking, just chatting about the school and my experience, answering his 146 questions. The one thing that stuck out to me about Austin was just how stoked he was about UCLA. Just stoked. Like he was the luckiest guy in the world.
And the best part is, he’s right, he is the luckiest kid in the world. Along with the other 26,000 of us. It’s easy when you’re in college to get used to the lifestyle: going out four nights a week, seeing all your friends every day, waking up at 1:59 p.m. on Sunday and running to brunch ““ it becomes part of the routine. And many times, I think I stopped appreciating how beautiful life here really is.
In a month, when my alarm goes off at 7 a.m. on Monday, after a wild night of reading a book and washing dishes, I think I’m going to really look back and miss this place. But as much as old people always say “college is the best time in your life,” I don’t think I really buy that.
Obviously, I’ve loved my time here. But I have this sneaking suspicion that this “real world” has a lot of its own upsides and intricacies that will make life pretty amazing as well. And if there’s one thing I learned at UCLA, it’s how easy it is to not appreciate what you have. So let’s be thankful for what we’ve had here, and enjoy the surprises that are sure to come next.
Gabe Rose was USAC president for the 2007-2008 academic year.