Despite near death experiences and all-access passes, real Daily Bruin memories come from the people

I haven’t written a column for a long time. A really long time. So the pressure to write something amazing that wraps up the four most glorious years of my life is a little much. I’m a photographer. One moment, one snap, and there it is: 1,000 words.

I thought about getting a head start last night. Instead, I chose to go balls to the wall in the first annual (mostly) Daily Bruin Drunkathalon with the one, the only, the one and only, my teammate, David Woods.

We were supposed to be in teams of three, but our third bailed without time to be replaced. It’s like a goalie, a quarterback or your doubles partner not showing up for the championship. What would you do? You know damn well what you would do: you would fight, because you’re a Bruin. Champions aren’t "Made Here" by throwing in the towel.

75 minutes, 10 signature drinks at 10 patient Westwood establishments, and one (life-saving) service rejection from Chili’s and I am closer to death than I have ever been.

But that’s what being a Bruin and being on the Daily Bruin does to you. And moments like these, my friends, are what I am going to remember most about college. (Whether it is actual memory or the next day’s investigative reporting ““ inconsequential).

Another near-death experience: editing. All of 2005 to 2006, fall to spring. sophomore year, I dove into the painfully demanding but unfathomably rewarding Photo Editor position with the desirable senior phenom Jay Taylor. His unyielding sense of humor kept me from turning to the dark side in a windowless Daily Bruin office that has been known to turn editors into vampires even during daylight. (Jay’s up there with Chili’s on the lifesaver list).

Enter the current legends: the interns. Although I did not feel worthy to be molding such minds of the future, they were somehow fooled into thinking I was. I thank them. A. Hsieh, Huangster, J. Lum and D. Rood make photo what it is today: a rowdy group of talented, hard-working yet somehow still degenerate future photographers of America. It’s been a pleasure shooting on the sidelines with you.

Ah, the sidelines. That gold-lined ‘Field A’ pass, straight from the palms of Marc Dellins himself. There’s something about the Rose Bowl and walking out onto a freshly mowed field with thousands of fans cheering, "Not yet, not yet, not yet ““ but now!" and "Go Bruins!" The band starts playing the "fish don’t fry in the kitchen" song, Coach K is ready for battle with his towel weaponry.

There’s something about being a Bruin.

Somewhere deep in the bowels of Gringotts, there’s this treasure called the Daily Bruin travel budget. It is responsible for my journey to nine states, 13 colleges, two NCAA championship victories and uncountable bars with practically every sports columnist you’ve been reading for the last four years.

Imagine. When else can a girl be so privileged to experience a cheap motel and a 12-pack with Sagar Perikh and Brian Chu, a farm in Nebraska with Ben Azar, a sneak into a SanFran club with Swiss seductress Muriel Cantryn, a Waffle House in two states with Ajaybir Behniwal and esteemed Assistant Sports Information Director Danny Harrington, near-death-by-semi in Chicago with Adam de Jong, a long, looong stretch of highway with Dave Woods and Sam Allen and so, so many sidelines.

It’s been almost four years since I first walked into the Daily Bruin Photo office. I will never forget the rush of excitement and anticipation I felt. The Daily Bruin has been more than just a job, more than an on-field pass. It has been more than just the bane of my existence and my near death. It has been and will forever be my friends, my community, my experience and my memories at UCLA. Go Bruins.

Cates was the 2005-2006 photo editor.