Graduates look back

UCLA bills itself as a place “where great futures
begin,” and as the graduating Class of 2004 prepares to begin
the next stage of their futures, their memories are too varied to
categorize.

The Daily Bruin asked 64 graduating seniors seven questions
about what they remember about their time at UCLA.

Students overwhelmingly remembered Sept. 11, 2001, as the most
important news event that occurred during their time at UCLA. The
start of the war in Iraq came in second, with the recall election a
distant third.

Most students had some idea what they will be doing with their
lives after graduating, but only a few of those ideas coincided
with each other. Looking for work topped the list with 10 votes,
and medical school, law school, graduate school and graduate school
after working for a year tied for the second most common
destinations with five votes each.

Only two graduating students said they had no idea what they
were doing, and other responses included both traditional paths,
such as going to pharmacy school and getting a Certificate of
Public Accounting, and non-traditional options, such as playing
professional basketball in Europe and pursuing a career at the
FBI.

Kyle Lyons, who is graduating with a degree in political
science, said he will spend next year interning for the Los Angeles
division of the FBI, and he hopes to get a full-time job after the
internship ends.

“I don’t speak another language, so it might be hard
to be a special agent,” Lyons said, adding that the position
was hard to get as the application included security
clearances.

“If you have something on your record, even if it is
minor, they don’t look twice at you,” Lyons said.

The Kerckhoff Coffeehouse received the most number of votes for
favorite place to study or relax on campus, with Powell Library in
second, but most of the other categories were widely dispersed.

Diddy Reese was selected as the favorite Westwood business by
eight people; Noodle Planet was second with four votes. The rest of
the responses were distributed thinly through 33 other restaurants
and stores, ranging from Habibi Café and BJ’s Restaurant
and Brewery to Ralphs and Rite-Aid.

Students’ choices for favorite movie were even more
varied. Of 41movies mentioned, “The Lord of the Rings”
series came in first with six votes, and four people chose
“Kill Bill” to put it in second. No other movie
received more than three votes.

Thirteen students said they never got a parking ticket at
school, but out of the 64 responses, students averaged 7.4 tickets
during their time at UCLA.

Memories of cultural and sporting events were even more
dispersed.

Fourteen out of 64 people listed some type of sporting event as
the most memorable UCLA event they saw, but no single event got
more than four votes.

Football games against USC and the JazzReggae Festival were the
most mentioned, with Spring Sing next in line. Some specific
events, such as the Vagina Monologues and the winter 2003
basketball game where UCLA upset No. 1-ranked Arizona, received two
votes.

Nine students said they had never been to any kind of cultural
or sporting event at UCLA, or could not remember one.

The sheer volume and variety of experiences that UCLA graduates
remember from their university experience sometimes makes it
difficult for students to pick out a defining image or memory.

“It’s all a blur,” said Justin Marquez, who is
graduating with degrees in Japanese and history and is planning to
study Chinese in Shanghai after graduation.

Some, like Lyons and Andrea Escalante, a graduating
international development studies student, said their strongest
memories are of the friends they made while at UCLA.

“I will miss my friends and the relaxed atmosphere of not
living in the real world,” Escalante said.

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