Love and lust on the first floor of Kerckhoff

The Daily Bruin office has been known to spark a juicy love affair or two in its day. Inevitably, these hot newspaper relationships melt down into tabloid scandal.

I guess I’ve broken a few hearts in my day, but I’ve come to realize love cannot be reserved for any particular section. On the contrary, it may only be bestowed upon journalism as a whole.

My first love at the Daily Bruin was Online. It was a typical first: We were awkward, a little dorky. I mean, it was a relationship spawned by the Internet ““ how suave could we be?

But as time moved on, so did Online. Burnout happened. Graduation. He just wasn’t the same after summer break.

So that winter I broke it off with Online, and I was in the mood for something completely different. That’s when I met News. From the very beginning, it was a whirlwind of passion and excitement. With News, I got to go to exotic locales, such as the Sustainable Resource Center, and talk to interesting people, such as the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council. After News put me on his front page for the first time, I knew my byline was glowing.

But in the end, I realized News was just a rebound ““ no foundation besides a basic, journalistic lust.

Fortunately, Copy was there to save me. Though he was a little sloppy when we met, I changed his spelling and adjusted his caps so he was always in style.

Sure, I was technically still with News, but after a couple of months, I realized Copy was who I had been looking for all along.

I could be myself around Copy. Unlike News, who only wanted me for text, Copy wanted all of me when I gave heads, both my stern side and my playful side, and wouldn’t get mad at me for correcting obscure style mistakes. I was on Cloud 9!

Or rather, I was on cloud nine. I started spending more time with him, and the more time I spent at his desk, the more possessive he got; at one point I had to take away his apostrophe. Our affair was making headlines.

But in time, even that relationship had to come to an end.

My educational clock was ticking, graduation was coming up, and I wanted interns of my own to teach and send out into the world. I loved Copy with all my heart, but I didn’t feel like the relationship was going in the right direction, so I made the hardest decision I ever had to make at The Bruin ““ I left Copy and went back to Online.

He was having a tough time for a while, but now, with a brand new look and an upgraded programming language, Online is a new Web site. He’s getting better all the time, and I’m glad I was there to help make him the best he could be.

So I guess it wouldn’t be libelous to say I got around at the Daily Bruin, though I never did get to give Design a good layout.

But in the grand scheme of things, I only ever had one love ““ journalism.

Gabbaian was a 2006-2007 Online editor and she was also a member of Copy and News.