I almost didn’t come to UCLA.

You could probably count on one hand the number of students who attended an Ivy League university in the history of my high school. Prestigious universities were not a regular topic of conversation, and most people ended up going to college somewhere nearby, along the coast of Southern California.

So as a senior, I followed suit and toured the small list of private religious schools and Cal State schools that graduates of my high school typically attended. But no matter how hard I tried to envision myself at these schools, none of them felt right.

Given how obsessive I was over maintaining a perfect GPA in high school, community college was never on the table for me. So when my parents suggested I spend two more years at home, I was immediately against the idea.

That was not how I envisioned my college experience.

It hurt to watch my peers start their new lives in college, while I was stuck at home. But I held onto the belief that there had to be something bigger waiting for me.

Community college ended up being wonderful.

I rediscovered my love for soccer, made lifelong friendships and memories with my teammates and got to spend two more years living with my family.

Despite my ability to make the best out of a situation I never thought I would be in, I spent every night wondering if my hard work would ever pay off.

That moment finally came when an acceptance email from UCLA landed in my inbox in April 2023. It wasn’t until then that I started to realize community college was not a detour but actually a step toward a life I never could have imagined as a high schooler.

I always loved to write. As a little kid, I wrote, illustrated and constructed my own book about a girl who turned into a hot dog.

But there was never a space beyond the classroom for me to fully dive into my knack for writing. That is, until I saw that applications were open for the Daily Bruin.

Unlike the other club applications I was filling out during those first few weeks at UCLA, I genuinely enjoyed the Daily Bruin application process. Even though I had zero experience in journalism, responding to the prompts felt natural, almost easy.

I jumped right into the deep end of journalism as part of the gymnastics beat. Although I had only ever watched gymnastics a few times during the Olympics, I was tasked with writing breaking wraps about the meets and generating interview questions for a sport I knew nothing about.

The Daily Bruin challenged me like I had never been challenged before – and I loved it.

I will never forget my first experience as a student reporter. As I sat at the media table alongside gymnastics editor Ben Royer and fellow intern, soon-to-be gymnastics editor Aaron Doyle at Meet the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion in December 2023, I was captivated by the fast-paced environment and thrill of being so close to the action.

And that thrill has yet to fade.

As I reflect on these last two years with the Daily Bruin, I realize this newspaper was the “something bigger” that I had been waiting for in community college. Without it, my passion for elevating women’s presence in the sports industry and increasing coverage of women’s sports might have stayed buried.

I often think about what would have happened if I had not gone to community college, UCLA or joined the Daily Bruin.

I would have never gotten the chance to travel to Berkeley and Salt Lake City to cover the gymnastics team at back-to-back NCAA Regionals. I would have never been in the background of the televised March Madness selection show when UCLA earned its first No. 1 overall seed in program history. I would have never interviewed two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles or met National Softball Hall of Famer Lisa Fernandez.

I would have never applied for an internship at Dodgers Nation, where I got to cover the Los Angeles Dodgers on their 2024 World Series run – and where I’ll continue working after graduation. I would not be packing my bags to head to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series – a tournament I have been watching on TV with my mom for years.

Like community college, journalism was never part of the plan, but now, I can’t imagine my life without it.

As my time at the Daily Bruin comes to an end and I prepare to tackle the unpredictabilities of post-grad life in New York City, I have learned not to fear the unknown because the best experiences in life are often the ones you do not anticipate.

Going to community college was hard and something I never expected. I spent two years waiting for it to finally be “my turn.”

But the Daily Bruin was absolutely worth the wait.

Garcia was Sports staff from 2024-2025 and a Sports contributor and reporter from 2023-2024.