Finding friendship in bridging the gap

As an assistant director of New Media for this year, I have been responsible for updating the Daily Bruin’s website with breaking news and the day’s news. In order to get the information out as soon as possible, we come into the office at midnight as the paper is just being sent to the printer and put all of the stories online.

There are very few people in Kerckhoff Hall at 3 a.m. when I am just finishing my work. However, there is one woman who is also at work in Kerckhoff at that time: Rosalina.

Rosalina, a UCLA facilities employee, is the woman who cleans the Daily Bruin office at night. Rosalina, or Rosie, and I first met in the office at the beginning of this school year when I began working at night more often. She would come in and take out the garbage throughout the office and then leave; there was very little interaction. I have noticed that this is the case all over campus.

The people who maintain our campus, our dorms, our classrooms, the ones who clean up after us on a daily basis, seem to occupy a different space than all of us students. There is so little interaction between the two groups, and it seems there is some unwritten rule that says it would be weird to do otherwise.

As this year has progressed, Rosie has become one of my dearest co-workers and a true friend. We talk about our families, work, graduation stresses, campus safety, health concerns ““ anything I would talk about with any other friend. I have a learned a lot about Rosie, about her children, about her husband and how his recovery has been going since his heart attack. She seems to really appreciate the friendship and the connection, and I do, too. While she may appreciate the interaction in her otherwise solitary work day, I have gained far more.

Rosie has shown me true kindness and support, remembering projects I have told her I was worried about and asking me about them even a week or more afterward. She even bought me a graduation present.

Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned at UCLA was from the friendship I forged with Rosalina. I have learned that when you break the unspoken rules in our society, which divide us all up into “separate” roles ““ those who go to UCLA and those who maintain the facilities ““ you will not only appreciate the work that goes into keeping our university so beautiful, but you may just find a unique friendship that you will never forget.

Tinnin was an assistant director of New Media for 2009-2010. Previously, she was a New Media contributor and a News reporter.