I found a home through my friends, experiences at the Daily Bruin -30-

During my time at UCLA, I was lucky enough to find a number of homes on campus. But something that will always stick with me is my time at the Daily Bruin, purely because of all the excellent people I was able to work and live with from day to day.

One of the most important parts of my time at UCLA was hoping to make the Daily Bruin office and those in it a part of my conversations and really bad jokes. All I wanted was to find a home at UCLA when I came from Atlanta, and I was seriously lucky to call the Daily Bruin my first home on campus.

I hope it’s OK for me to put a bunch of shout outs throughout my -30- column because it’s only right to congratulate and thank all those who made my Daily Bruin experience worth the long hours and busy deadlines. I most importantly want to thank my Sports team of Ryan Smith, Joy Hong, Angie Forburger and Sam Connon. They made my first two years of college so much fun and filled it with so much good work and many interesting conversations. I am always going to be thankful for their friendship and kindness, and I hope they all know they have a friend in me for life.

I also want to thank Molly Wright. I’m not sure she will read this, but she is one of the best people I met during my time at UCLA. We sorta-kinda didn’t know each other for two years because I guess our class schedules never let us meet in Kerckhoff Hall, but I eventually figured out she was pretty much the sickest person in The Quad and maybe outside of The Quad. So big thanks to Molly if she is reading this, I’m so lucky to have met a friend like you, and I hope to visit you in London soon!

Looking back on the past year, it is especially hard to believe I never set foot in the Kerckhoff office and didn’t particularly spend too much time in the world of Daily Bruin aside from editorial board meetings. To me and many others, the Daily Bruin was a space that occupied everything you had going on at school – from walking to campus to big life moments that dotted the months of production. It was especially embarrassing for me to take my mom and dad into the office devoid of light and any notion of time and say, “Yeah, so this is the place I refuse to leave.”

It felt odd to distance myself from writing after spending so much of my time at UCLA on Camayak, utilizing all the command shortcuts to speed up late-run production. It also felt even more foreign to not finish the year at -30- surrounded by all of my friends. Despite all of the obstacles over the past year, it is formidable that the Daily Bruin found a way to keep operating like the machine it has always been.

There are far too many pre-COVID-19 Daily Bruin stories to name and too many moments that made me laugh, feel endless pride and also get a bit frustrated. But that’s the joy of the Daily Bruin and all the intangibles that make it one of the best organizations to throw yourself into and see where you end up. You learn more about yourself as you stare at way too many edits from David Gottlieb and Kelsey Angus face-to-face than any other organization on campus.

You start your time at the Daily Bruin for the work and the hope that it will advance you professionally, but then that idea quickly falls apart and it becomes based around friendships more than anything else. You meet a new person every day if you want to while sitting on the couches or any one of the office’s many crumbling chairs. Sure, some climb higher and higher in the Daily Bruin because we love the work, but it’s always because we have such a sense of respect for the professional and interpersonal capabilities of the staff.

My final thank you goes out to the Daily Bruin. Thank you for bringing me some of my best memories as an undergraduate, and I hope you keep giving more to future members of the Kerckhoff 118 family. And to all those future DBers, what you learn as a writer or editor is always going to be surpassed by the people you meet and the oddball moments you’ll share – so enjoy it!

McCarthy was a Sports contributor and reporter 2017-2018, assistant Sports editor 2018-2019 and editorial board member 2019-2021.