The first time my picture ever appeared in the Daily Bruin I
wrote about my high school senior trip to Mexico. Like a deer
caught in headlights, I smiled to the campus fearful and in full
color.
I wrote about my adventures with marijuana-pushing cab drivers,
foam fests, Long Island iced teas, and club owners who don’t
like it when you play with their plastic monkeys. I talked about
things that didn’t really matter, but were entertaining as
hell.
Fast forward two years and a few things stayed the same. You
will find a girl who is still Mexican American, still 5 feet tall,
and still scared as hell. The Daily Bruin has been all I’ve
known since I stepped foot on campus. But I plan to spend my senior
year moving away from what, at one time, used to be sacred.
Now, I’m not sure how I feel.
This year has taught me a lot about who I am. I’m an
editor ““ who also writes. I’m a journalist ““ of
arts and entertainment. I’m a friend ““ but also a boss.
As you can see, this year was ruled by these seeming
contradictions. Can you be all of these things at the same
time?
Well, I spent my year trying.
I moved into my little corner (hovel, cave, hole…) of the
A&E cubicle excited, eager, naive ““ reliving the
traditions of those before me (the quote wall, the freak wall)
while creating some of my own (the bald man wall). I was determined
to not be a carbon copy of years past. This would be the year
A&E was taken seriously. Some agreed with this view, others did
not.
Whatever. I would get through it and maybe, just maybe, produce
a section I could be proud of. And I did just that.
I also learned a few things along the way.
Rule No. 1 ““ diversity counts now as much as it ever did.
I won’t let next year prove differently. Diversity is the
reason I came to UCLA. Diversity is the reason I joined the
Editorial Board. Diversity is the reason I need to leave, to
grow.
Rule No. 2 ““ never pigeon-hole yourself. People will do it
for you. Spend your life growing out of the labels put on you
despite opposition.
Rule No. 3 ““ remember the things that color life. Culture
colors life. Art colors life. Love colors life. I found all three
in the office this year. I found people with real opinions and
honest backgrounds. I also found the opposite.
And finally, Grand Rule No.4 ““ those rules that apply to
the rest of the journalism world still apply in the cubicle of
A&E.
I once heard arts coverage described as the “neon
sheep” of journalism. Look at our sources. No, they
aren’t the president of USAC or UC Regent X, but we like to
think the Bloodhound Gang says something about the way our campus
and our generation thinks. And sometimes it isn’t pretty.
But it isn’t fluff, it isn’t PR. We aren’t in
it for the free stuff ““ the crappy CDs, the mediocre local
concerts, the interviews with people who think they’re
God.
I hope my section believes that popular culture tints every
shade of society. It’s the type of stuff that the pundits and
politicians will never touch, that will never be A-1 news, but in
the end, imprints our lives at every moment of the day.
So that’s what I’ve learned. That’s how
I’ve grown. I’m finally at a place where I can laugh
that my byline once “accidentally” read “Michelle
Frisbees.” I’m okay with the fact that some days my
section could be murder on the senses. I don’t need therapy
anymore to get over “Blair Witch Project.”
I’m proud of both myself and the people I worked with. So
to end my career as a Daily Bruin editor, I want to say thank you
to the people who were always there with every turn. Thanks to
Street, who supported me when I needed it most. Thank you Andrea,
for giving me the confidence I never knew I had.
And thank you Larry. Foam fests in Mexico are better by your
side.