Bye-lines: No danger in jumping

Jumping blindly into a big canyon in Switzerland can evoke that
life-flashing-before-your-eyes feeling that I hope you won’t
feel too often.

But there I was, attached to an eerily long but durable cord
that would keep me from smashing into the canyon floor, canyon
wall, jagged rocks, etc.

The cord did save me; otherwise I wouldn’t be writing
this. Still, that first step into nothing is a total
“doozy.” Sure the ramifications of gravity are no joke,
but I’m referring more to the disobedience of it all.

Early on, your mom, dad and in my “different” case
““ dog too, monitored all your potential risky business.

“Don’t crawl near the stairs “¦ don’t
jump off the bed “¦ don’t be afraid of heights, but
certainly don’t get near them either.”

In other words, just say no to dangerous things, questionable
temptations and the like.

It’s good, safe advice; I don’t deny that, or my
affection for the semi-colon.

But you can’t always not act just because advice pipes up.
I wouldn’t have taken that step. I wouldn’t have
idiotically jumped off a Swiss platform for what turned out to be
an estimated six exhilarating seconds. Exhilarating because I saw a
lot ““ everyone and everything that has influenced me,
everyone and everything I have affected too.

“No, Daily Bruin, this isn’t just some whimsical ode
to you. I didn’t see you first or third even. You did come up
pretty early though.”

That irked me.

Although I can honestly say I look at the last four years at the
Bruin fondly, I don’t want my dying thoughts to consist of
some late-night, ridiculous but “deep” conversation I
had here, or of some headline I wrote two years ago and still take
irrational but unmitigated pride in.

I don’t want that.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here ““ I mean I
already survived falling in the Alps ““ to say I thought of
the Daily Bruin not because it’s something I did or something
I’ve influenced, but because it’s something that
parallels that first blind step.

Like jumping off, it’s risky business working here, and I
was advised not to do it sometimes.

People didn’t understand why I was wide-awake and waiting
for a layout at midnight rather than lying in bed. And friends get
a little mean when you can’t plan adequate time for them.

But as mentioned with the Switzerland dive, risky business is
just as exhilarating and intelligent as it is dangerous or
disobedient.

Something in 118 Kerckhoff’s cubicles, in the quirky
people who hide behind the cubicles, in the conveying of important
information well ““ something gets inside of you.

Something makes you jump at least every other day for four
chaotic years, and you’re the better for it.

Nicholson was a Daily Bruin copy deputy and News
contributor.