Erin Donnelly: Stepping back in time at The Bruin

I recently joined a group of Daily Bruin staffers on a 3 a.m. trek to the outskirts of Los Angeles County to see our paper get printed.

It felt like stepping back in time. It was also deafeningly loud and had a lingering, unidentifiable stench – but that’s besides the point.

Ancient machines heaved blank sheets through colored plates and rotating gears to churn out our beloved paper. For the moment, we got to pretend we were in the golden era of newspapers – a time when people relied on the printed page rather than their computer screens.

Working at The Bruin is also a bit like stepping back in time. We are surrounded by archives of pictures, stories and columns that document not just the history of UCLA, but the paper itself. Inside jokes taped to the walls years ago and later forgotten. Clippings from old stories that someone was once proud of. A quote by an editor from generations past who no one has met, but everyone knows.

Like the rest of that golden newspaper era, The Bruin I know will soon fade into history.

My class graduates straddling the line between that old world of newsprint on our hands and the new world of online innovation. It is an exciting time with new and better-smelling possibilities.

For now, though, it is comforting to get lost in yesterday (I majored in history, so a penchant for nostalgia comes with the territory).

As I write this column, with commencement tickets on the table and my graduation gown hanging on the wall, I find myself clinging to the past more than ever.

I’m clinging to football games and midnight yells.

I’m clinging to the rooftop sunsets and tunneling adventures.

I’m clinging to the strangers I found in my hall freshman year who now are my family.

But most of all, I’m clinging to the Daily Bruin.

The future of journalism is murky. And, like many graduates, so is mine. For the first time in my life, I don’t know the next step.

I do know that no matter what happens next, I will never really let go.

Donnelly was the community engagement director from 2014-2015, News editor from 2013-2014, assistant News editor from 2012-2013 and News contributor from 2011-2012.