Serli Polatoglu: Chance saved by dignity

Three years is an oddly indefinable period of time. Some days, my stint at UCLA seemed interminable.

Some days, it seemed all too transitory. And now, as I sit here typing up the text that will bear my very last byline in the Daily Bruin, I can’t help but realize that both sentiments, opposing as they may be, are incongruously true.

Three years ago, I walked through the daunting double doors at Kerckhoff Hall for my Daily Bruin interview, an anxious freshman with frizzy hair and a fervent hope. Fingers crossed! I was going to be a reporter at a big-time college newspaper.

Of course, I tanked the interview. Things were going relatively well until then-opinion editor Neil Paik asked me the fateful question: “If you could ask Gene Block one thing, what would it be?” New to UCLA and generally ignorant, I had to uncomfortably admit that I didn’t know who Gene Block was.

Neil winced, and I cringed upon hearing that Block was none other than the chancellor of UCLA. I was mortified, and the interview ended shortly thereafter.

But I was determined not to let my chances die with my dignity. The next day, I marched back through those double doors and met a surprised Neil at the entrance.

“Your interview was yesterday,” he said, with a puzzled look on his face.

“I know, but I didn’t like how I answered the Gene Block question, so here’s a list of things I would ask him given the chance,” I replied, handing him a folded piece of paper on which my last hopes resided.

A week later, I walked through those double doors for what very well could have been the last time. I entered Student Media, nervously wondering if I’d leave as a member of the Daily Bruin team, or just a reader.

I jumped for joy, took a picture of my name under the heading of accepted applicants and did the typical freshman thing – called my mom.

Since then, I’m happy to report that I’ve been a news writer, opinion editor and staff columnist at the Bruin – and I’ve met with Chancellor Block on three separate occasions to interview him as a member of the editorial board. All three times, I was prepared with questions and a full foreknowledge of who he was.

I don’t know if Neil even remembers my interview. I doubt people will remember me at the Bruin in a few years. The paper has always been something bigger than myself – than even the team that puts it together.

But, I know for certain that I will never forget the three sunless, carpal tunnel-inducing, Nutella-fueled years where I was sheltered behind those unassuming double doors. Thank you, Daily Bruin, for everything.

Polatoglu was an opinion columnist from 2012-2013, opinion editor from 2011-2012 and a news reporter from 2010-2011.

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