If you have ever stepped inside the Daily Bruin office in Kerckhoff 118, then you can understand my feelings. One-one-eight is a windowless dungeon, a mine shaft in which all lights are blackened and the act of coal mining for news and entertainment is initiated by journalistic slaves. The office is a black hole, one that absorbs life from journalists and is meant to forever jail those who enter.
Okay, maybe it is not as dark as a windowless dungeon. As an assistant Photo editor, I have spent hundreds of hours under the infinite fluorescent lighting given off from one-one-eight’s ceiling lights.
Weekly, my parents ask if I study for class, or if I even show up for class ““ "Yes, Mom and Dad, I do study." And yes, Mom, surprisingly enough, my grades are not failing just yet: However, I could pull out my hair from DB stress.
Ever since my older sister attended UCLA, I knew I wanted to enroll here. But as a transfer student, I had little knowledge of Bruin life. As a high school student on a tour of the UCLA campus, the tour guide mentioned that the Daily Bruin was the top-ranking collegiate daily newspaper in the country. I knew right away I needed to improve my photo portfolio and be one of the few applicants to be accepted as a Fall 2006 photojournalism intern.
And it was good that I did. Only as a one-one-eight photographer could I experience the sweat of the number one basketball team in the nation playing on the court of Pauley Pavilion or at the Pac-10 Tournament at the Staples Center. Or get close enough to Karl Dorrell to boo in his face on the sidelines of the Rose Bowl. Or photograph the stoic Ray Bradbury speaking at Royce Hall for the Festival of Books. Or capture the smile of the two-time sweepstakes award winner Katie Boeck playing "White Lies" at Spring Sing. Nowhere else on campus than at the Bruin do these photojournalistic opportunities present students with an active role in the student body.
Remember, no one has lived as a Daily Bruin staffer until one has lived within its stone walls, beat the dirt off its dusty seats, breathed in its stale air, heard the cries and screams from NateDog and Chewbacca, or slept on the photo couch for a starless, fluorescent light-filled night.
Tyree was assistant Photo editor for the 2007-2008 year. Before that, he was a Daily Bruin staff photographer.