Daily Bruin

Well, this was rather unanticipated.

Lisa Aubry said she had no idea what to expect when she joined Daily Bruin as an Arts & Entertainment reporter – certainly not that she would conduct a meta-reportage of personal reflections three years later.

Never having written a journalistic article in her life prior to joining, Aubry said she huffed and puffed in dismay over the first round of edits. What a crimp on her style, she remembers thinking.

“I’m trained primarily in art history, (a field) which favors intensive observation, rich visual descriptions and elaborate academic arguments,” Aubry said. “I was not prepared to face the Daily Bruin’s goals of relaying information through informative but concise, snappy terms.”

Yet the more frequently and wholeheartedly she invested in teaching readers about others, the more she learned about herself, Aubry said. She said she recalls a few pivotal stories in her college journalism career that profoundly altered her mindset, sparking major self-discoveries. For one such article, Aubry said she interviewed a Swiss photographer who set up photography workshops in the West Bank. There, Israeli and Palestinian women experimented with photography and connected with one another for the first time.

Some of the women Aubry interviewed said they had never spoken to, much less truly observed, the “other” women. Only upon photographing one another did they notice the color of one another’s eyes, the idiosyncrasies and humanity of people they once perceived as enemies. Reporting the workshop initiative permitted Aubry to experience a concept she was beginning to suspect as myth: that art truly can transcend political, religious and linguistic barriers to change mindsets.

“I was at a time in my life where I began to question the validity of my area of study and whether it was actually applicable,” Aubry said. “This reportage not only mended, but reinvigorated my drive to apply my skills toward something as serviceable, progressive and courageous as the photographer and these women.”

Given this renewed confidence in her potential to make valuable contributions to society via art historical perspectives, Aubry said she launched a column “Art to Heart” in her final quarter at Daily Bruin. One facet of the column explored the crossovers between art and the sciences. Over the course of 10 weeks, conversations with experts in the fields of physics, astronomy, mathematics, biology and ecology nudged Aubry toward what she called a pivotal “aha” moment. She just might want to pursue this exploration of the potential between art-science partnerships all her life.

Existential and career-related epiphanies aside, Aubry said her Daily Bruin experience also profoundly enriched her life in other ways. It also introduced her to close friends and Cheese Club, which are nearly synonymous. Aubry said she set out to write a feature about the newly founded Cheese Club at UCLA. She said her initial reluctance to attend a meeting among total strangers dissolved as quickly as the first bite of honeyed goat cheese. Physical presence permitted Aubry to record observations and witty side-comments she could never have gained in remote interviews, she said. Needless to say, Aubry said she served as proud president to the Cheese Club this year, the discovery of which she ultimately owes to The Bruin.

“Writing about myself in the third-person is fun because I can never go wrong,” she said. “Diddily bop.”

At this point, Aubry said it is crucial to acknowledge that The Bruin is not some abstract journalistic entity, but rather nothing more – or less – than the writers and creatives that make it up. She said the first source she ever interviewed as part of her training, fellow A&E reporter Cam Vernali, has stuck around ever since.

“I just can’t seem to get rid of her,” Aubry said.

Both deeply interested in different art forms, technologies and writing, Aubry said she and Vernali swiftly transformed from acquaintances to close friends to roommates. Not long thereafter Aubry said she met A&E reporter Sidra Rashid, a fashionista with a contagious laugh who would also become her close friend and roommate.

Daily Bruin has always been a game of push and pull, Aubry said. Both quick-paced and in-depth, her interviews with opera and R&B singers, comedians, playwrights, dancers and other creatives kept her informed about the diversity of accomplishments in close proximity. Documenting such indispensable thinkers and creatives made her personal strive toward valuable societal, artistic and academic contribution all the more tangible.

The close friends, fellow reporters and insightful editors she encountered at Daily Bruin helped her track her own progress. Amid the overwhelming flurry of accomplishments, events and discoveries she reported, it was those in Daily Bruin who motivated her to deliver the utmost quality of writing and friendship.

“Thank you, Daily Bruin, for initially crimping my style but ultimately sparking my growth,” Aubry said.

Aubry was an A&E contributor 2016-2017 and an A&E reporter and photographer 2017-2019.

New school, new me.

I, like many others, wish to completely forget that high school ever happened – from the horrible hair choices to the experimentation with eyeliner, it wasn’t a good look. And it wasn’t a fun time either. High school was everything I didn’t want to repeat during my time in college.

In high school, I missed basically every school event you can think of. I decided against attending prom, grad night and any other social outing I could avoid. When I finally did make up my mind to attend something, it was the homecoming game, at which we all sat around on cold, uncomfortable bleachers. By then, all my friends had created memories and inside jokes that I never had the ability to laugh along to.

So I vowed that in college I would change. I was going to be outgoing and carefree. I would no longer find myself passing on opportunities and invitations. I especially wasn’t going to throw away years worth of loans down the drain, simply because I was too chicken to experience something new. I planned to get the most out of my undergraduate experience at UCLA.

And orientation weekend was the first step toward the new me. I stopped at every table at the activities fair. I signed up for every club, organization and mailing list imaginable – one of which was the Daily Bruin. I was on a roll, walking back to my weekend place with tons of fliers. During zero week, I went to Bruin Bash and met up with new friends. My path toward social enlightenment was within reach. But as zero week breezed by, so did my drive to construct a new version of myself.

The emails for all the clubs and organizations I had signed up for kept piling up. I resorted back to my high school self. Hell, I never showed up to a single Bruin Democrats meeting, but I still receive weekly update emails four years later.

Every time I declined an invitation to a social gathering – whether it was a party or a club event – I felt horrible. I stewed in regret knowing that the next time I’d see everyone they would have grown closer with shared memories.

I’d tell myself I was going to be a part of whatever it was anyone had planned the next time. But the next time came around, and I’d find yet another excuse. This continued throughout my time at UCLA. And yet, four years later, I think back and I don’t regret not being a part of those things. I was wrong to think I could change from one day to the next – or even from one year to the next.

This isn’t to say that you should decline everything that comes your way and stay stuck inside a box. In fact, setting goals and making choices that are outside your comfort zone is a great thing to do. If it weren’t for the initial surge of energy and confidence I had freshmen year, I wouldn’t have joined the Daily Bruin or met a lifelong friend, Kuhelika Ghosh, when we were easily frightened first-years in Opinion training during the fall quarter 2015.

As I’m reflecting on my years at UCLA, I’ve finally come to realize that staying the same isn’t the problem. The problem is holding yourself back when something’s unknown. It can be extremely difficult not to feel anxious, especially with all the pressures that come from a new environment – believe me, I know. It’s important to know your limits. It’s OK to take it one step and one social gathering at a time. You don’t necessarily have to say “yes” to every invitation thrown your way, especially with the quarter system throwing a continuous stream of assignments in the same direction.

On my way to my master’s program next year, I’m not looking to be a new and improved social butterfly. Yes, I want to create new friendships and memories, but I’m not going to make myself uncomfortable trying to do that. If UCLA has taught me anything it’s that, although there is so much happening on campus, it doesn’t mean you have to be a part of everything.

Be selective if you want to. There’s no need to rebel against everything you know. It’s enough to go against your parents’ wishes of being a doctor.

Wenceslao was an Opinion columnist 2015-2019.

What a wild ride it’s been.

Imagine being an awkward, quiet 17-year-old Asian boy walking into a crowded office, and the first person you make eye contact with is Matt Cummings. It was like diving straight into the deep end of a pool before realizing you can’t swim. Yikes.

I applied to the Daily Bruin on a whim, starting my application two days before the deadline and submitting it sometime around 11:50 p.m. the night of.

I’m still not sure why Matt, Claire Fahy, Tanner Walters and Korbin Placet decided to hire me, but I think I fell into the “Eh, why not?” pile of interns. I didn’t have the best resume, the most outgoing personality or even the nicest-sounding voice (you’re welcome, Grant Sugimura).

While they figured out their new class of interns, I was figuring out myself as well.

Who am I? Who do I want to become? What am I doing here? What do I want to accomplish?

When I first started covering the men’s tennis beat as a freshman, I had a totally unjustified air of arrogance, which crumpled like a kite floating in a Category 5 hurricane.

I couldn’t count the number of times my tongue stumbled and spat out gibberish during interviews, or how often I repeated myself because I lost my train of thought in the middle of a question.

Thankfully, I had – and continue to have – a great support group.

Korbin showed me the ropes for seeking out the best stories and how to report them. Men’s tennis coach Billy Martin was patient and understanding, offering me great tidbits and quotes to include in my stories. Many others were kind enough to critique my writing and offer constructive feedback.

Through it all, I learned to embrace the struggle, and to ask for help when I needed it.

The nervousness, the constant sweat and the time commitment were worth the handful of congratulatory texts and Slack messages.

Or so I thought.

There were many moments as an assistant Sports editor when I questioned if the struggle was worth it.

What sustained me – and I’m talking about spiritual nourishment, because eating too much Panda Express and Rubio’s basically ruined the physical side of things – was knowing that our stories were important and well-written.

Everyone in the Sports section, from interns to fellow editors, and upper management pushed me to deliver the best content we could, and for that, I will be grateful for the rest of my life. Thank you Tanner, Anjishnu Das, Emaan Baqai, TuAnh Dam, David Gottlieb and Grant for believing in me.

That’s what I hope I’ll always remember about my time at The Bruin: how all the stories and memories helped shape who I am today.

I think I’ve accomplished a lot over these past four years, but the awards and recognition don’t mean as much to me as the stories I’ve written do. I was fortunate enough to cover an international shoplifting incident, a college athletics admission scandal, and the firing and hiring of both the football and men’s basketball head coaches. Those are the stories and experiences that will stick with me as I age and my head grows balder than that of current men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin.

Nothing’s quite like sitting through a Georgia thunderstorm in the middle of May, covering a tennis match that ended past midnight, and cranking out transcriptions, a wrap and a notebook before heading back to my Airbnb at 3 a.m. to grab a couple hours of sleep before catching a shuttle to the airport.

Nothing can replace the angry phone calls, emails and tweets (Q: Is the Den lit? A: Y e s).

Nothing will supersede the feeling of flying through a football insta-wrap and then half-running down six flights of stairs and across the Rose Bowl grass to make it to the press conference on time.

Through my sojourn in Kerckhoff Hall 118, I’ve learned a lot about myself, and I’m beginning to answer those four questions I asked as a first-year.

Who am I? Who do I want to become?

I’m someone with a voice and the privilege to tell those you-had-to-be-there stories. I want to keep doing so and see where it takes me in life.

What am I doing here? What do I want to accomplish?

I’m writing my final piece for The Bruin and reflecting on these past four years and what they’ve meant to me. I want to look back at this column in 20 years – smile a little, cry a little and recognize how impactful every memory was.

I’ll miss all the content, Design budget meetings, the editing and, yes, even the late runs. I’ll miss the media availabilities, football coach Chip Kelly’s dry sense of humor, Los Angeles Times’ UCLA beat reporter Ben Bolch’s arcane 1980s references and Southern California News Group’s UCLA beat reporter Thuc Nhi Nguyen’s Asian-ness (representation matters!). And last but not least, I’ll miss all the people I had the pleasure of working with. Even Matt Cummings.

Wang was a Sports contributor 2015-16, assistant Sports editor 2016-17 and Daily Bruin senior staff 2017-19.

I’m an overthinker, to the point where I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rewritten the lede of this very column.

Daily Bruin Copy is the one place this trait has served me well.

The Copy desk took a lot of the things I previously didn’t like about myself and turned them into badges I now wear proudly. If I weren’t an overthinker, I wouldn’t be good at catching sensitivity issues and eliminating implicit bias in stories. If I weren’t prone to staying up past 3 a.m. for no reason, I would’ve quit Copy half a year in, missing out on countless nights of uncontrollable laughter. If I didn’t have the rather out-there sense of humor that I’ve found just doesn’t do it for a lot of people, I wouldn’t have been a proud proponent of the section’s multiple collective obsessions and inside jokes.

I’m pretty terrible at writing about myself, and I’m surprised I’ve made it two grafs in without feeling the urge to delete it all. So enough about me; I want to address the rest of this column to the brilliant colleagues I’ve had at this organization over the years – and those who will be taking some of our places.

Some special shoutouts: Derek Yen and Hannah Brezack, mom and dad extraordinaire; Sang-Ho Lee, the best work husband a girl could ask for; Anna Floersch, who is always looking out for me. Design, forever the section Copy hearts the most; Online, for adopting me my senior year; #holy-ground, for always, always being hype about Taylor Swift. Rhiannon Davies, for enabling my Veggie Grill habit and talking to me about “Gilmore Girls;” Amy Baumgartner, for making me an extra proud mom; Anush Khatri and Rachel Wong, for being wonderful successors. That isn’t even the half of it – so many more of you have positively impacted my life.

When I think about you all, overwhelming gratitude is my primary emotion – for helping me like myself more, yes, but also just for being you. Thank you to each of you that’s sat down with me when I’ve had questions about stories, brightened my mood with a fun anecdote on a bad day or enabled my Slack hacking. You’re some of the coolest, smartest and most diligent people I’ve met at UCLA.

And to DB Copy 2019-2020: Most of you don’t know me very well, or even at all, but I’m excited for you. Sometimes, the work you do will feel frustratingly inconsequential – but making stories the best versions of themselves and writing good headlines are responsibilities integral in determining how much faith readers place in The Bruin. Also, the Copy desk is one of the most nonjudgmental places you’ll likely ever find yourself. Please open up to the people you meet here; chances are you’ll reap rich rewards for doing so.

Oh, and never hold back a weird joke because you think it’s too much – it probably isn’t.

Vatsa was a Copy contributor 2015-2016, slot editor 2016-2017, Copy chief 2017-2018 and Online and Copy senior staff 2018-2019.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes during my time here at UCLA.

Some of these mistakes were short-lived, and some will likely follow me for years to come. Much of my regret was a culmination of these mistakes, but looking back, I can locate the source of it all: uncertainty.

I spent four years walking up and down UCLA, from home to deep South Campus, in a haze of doubt. In retrospect, I probably should have paused, taken a step back and really considered where my path was headed. Instead, I was spellbound by the lukewarm promise of a successful future and overwhelmed by the certainty exhibited by my closest friends and peers – people who seemed to have found their calling.

I wanted that too, and I suppose I managed to find a glimmer of it.

Daily Bruin was my first and most consistent certainty in college. I joined the organization in fall of my first year, as a bright-eyed girl who loved her high school English classes with a passion, but didn’t actually know anything about copy-editing. And now, here I am – graduating after serving a year as the assistant Copy chief and spending the entirety of my undergraduate career with The Bruin.

My trek from the apartments to Kerckhoff Hall 118 was a path I memorized – physically and emotionally. When it came to the newspaper, I knew where I was going – a little enclave I had burrowed into because it felt safe, because I had managed to call that dirty, forsaken office home. The feeling was foreign but welcome, and if I ever seemed aloof or quiet in the office, it was because I didn’t know how to perform in social situations, not because I wasn’t enjoying myself.

I’m not content-trained, but I can still write. So, here are the words I didn’t know how to vocalize.

To the copy editors and leadership of old, you all made me the person I am now. I like to think I internalized bits and pieces of the Daily Bruin copy editors I admired, and I hope that in doing so, I have done justice to their legacies. The Bruin has been formative in my transition from a young adult to a slightly older young adult, and I can only thank previous Copy leadership for welcoming me aboard, year after year.

To all the stars of Copy who stuck with us through the good and the bad, the strikes and the socials – you have all been integral to the strength of the section, and it has been incredibly heartwarming seeing all of you grow into the editors you are now. Regardless if you decide to stay for another year, thank you for your contributions, and I hope each of you take a little bit from your time with Copy into future endeavors. For those who will be slot editors and staff next year, brace yourselves. I would be lying if I said it’s going to be easy, but have faith in your abilities; you have such an important job for the paper, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If there’s anyone suited for catching poor, insensitive wording at 2 a.m., it’s you!

To my wife Anush Khatri and the slot editors of the 2018-2019 term, thank you for giving me, section dad, a phenomenal year. I’m definitely not perfect, but you have all, in different capacities, managed to fill the spaces in which I am lacking. I can honestly say that I have never felt such a warm and driven team supporting me from the wings. Copy leadership this past year has taught me so much, from how to be a dependable and compassionate person, to how to breathe when some huge production error falls on your shoulders. In some ways, college has destroyed me as a person, but when we’re in that pretentious conference room joking about someone’s boundless love for Hawaii or someone’s odd obsession with “Pokemon Detective Pikachu,” I realize I’ve found small comforts in the path I’ve taken and the choices I’ve made.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes during my time here at UCLA, but I know with certainty that Daily Bruin was not one of them. There are a lot of people in this institution – in Copy and beyond – who have given me something, whether it be perspective, happiness, pride or respect. Here’s to a not-so-grand four years and the golden memories I’ll be bringing with me to the next chapter of my life. I’m going to miss hearing “hummus!” whenever I get a notification.

Wong was a Copy contributor 2015-2016, Copy staff 2016-2017, slot editor 2017-2018, and assistant Copy chief and Illustrations contributor 2018-2019.

I have always firmly believed that everything happens for a reason.

Fresh out of a relationship, and hoping to prove something to myself, I joined the Daily Bruin on a whim my second year at UCLA. I navigated the chaos of the Enormous Activities Fair, where then-Arts & Entertainment editors Will Thorne and Lindsay Weinberg told me about the paper, handing me a flyer that detailed how applications would work.

I didn’t know anything about writing for a newspaper, and I knew that I had never given The Bruin a read. Joining the school’s newspaper seemed like such a long shot for me. But if there’s anything the club rejections taught me my first year, it’s that organizations have reasons behind the people they choose.

I became so numb to consolatory emails reading, “Thank you for your interest, but we regret to inform…,” that I didn’t expect a call from Christi Carras, another then-A&E editor.

When I started as a contributor, I honestly thought the editor team made some kind of mistake. I tried to figure out why they brought me on board, but I eventually moved on from the shock and accepted their decision.

The dozens of hours I had yet to spend interviewing, reporting, transcribing, rewriting, rewriting and rewriting for The Bruin started with a preview for the the 2016 dance show “Yes to Bodies.” After 12 years of ballet, I thought writing about dance would be simple, but when terms like “graf” and “kicker” came into the mix, I reverted to that initial state of cluelessness.

But I learned.

There were times when I became frustrated with editors asking to cut, to reorganize, to cut again and for details. But they had their reasons, and the process made each story I wrote stronger than I thought possible. I grew a thicker skin with each article, each interview, each byline.

If there’s one regret I have leaving the Daily Bruin, it’s that I wish I became an editor sooner. But my choice not to pursue an editorship until my fourth year worked out for the best.

During my third year, I learned that reporting was what I, someone who once knew nothing about journalism, wanted to do. Through the scores of concert, restaurant and movie reviews, features and Q&As, I knew that I enjoyed telling stories that allowed people to reconsider how they thought about the campus and the roles art and entertainment have in the grand scheme of things.

I applied for the top editor position in the A&E section and received a consolatory call in return. It sucked. But after a day, I was glad.

Things worked out the way they did for multiple reasons. First, the position went to someone much more capable and knowledgeable. Second, I ended up with an editorship that allowed me to spread that passion for storytelling both within The Bruin and beyond.

Taking on the role as PRIME content editor will remain one of the best decisions of my UCLA career, second to joining DB in the first place. I shared my knowledge with Daily Bruin staffers with whom I probably would have never interacted, and they shared the stories they thought were worth telling.

Bringing home a couple of awards was a nice bonus to the job, too.

Over the year, I made up for what I felt was lost time, thanks to the magazine’s more relaxed production. I brought the skills The Bruin has imparted on me to other award-winning publications and gained experience to prepare for what others call “the real world.”

It’s validating to know the Daily Bruin has led generations of staff members to their dream jobs, and I hope to join them one day.

However, it’s weird to think that my gravitating toward the office after class will stop. The door codes to Kerckhoff Hall 118 will become obsolete in my mind, Slack messages from fellow staffers will appear on my phone no more and my Daily Bruin bylines will remain in the archives of the paper. But again, everything happens for a reason.

I look forward to learning those reasons.

Del Rosario was an A&E contributor 2016-2017, staff reporter 2017-2018 and PRIME content editor 2018-2019.