A "young" alum returns to campus and reaffirms his connections to the school that offered him so much

By Zachary Aron '94

To be honest, I am writing this for purely selfish reasons. Since I graduated from UCLA in 1994, I have rarely, if ever, received an opportunity to write creatively. While in school, I was a writer for the sports section of the Daily Bruin for three years, which left an indelible impression on not only my experience at UCLA, but the years after. Most of my best friends from UCLA came from the Daily Bruin and our time there provides a bond that keeps us together even today.

On top of that, I was able to do two things I thoroughly enjoyed — sports and writing. By writing about sports, I thought I was doing the next best thing to playing sports for UCLA. I received access to players, coaches and games at an intimate level and every day got to tell the rest of the UCLA community about it. As college gigs go, it's as good as it gets.

In four faster-than-you-ever-thought-possible years, I graduated. I traded the pen and pad for a laptop and a Palm Pilot, and creative writing as I knew it became a hobby of the past. Then, in a moment of spontaneous school spirit, I decided to R.S.V.P. for the Young Alumni Reunion in March. (A small side note: My class, at 10 years out, was the "oldest" of the young alumni. Does that make me officially middle-aged next year?) Two days later, the editor of UCLA Magazine called with an offer I couldn't refuse: "Would you like to write a story about the reunion and your feelings about UCLA from the alumni perspective?" It took all of two seconds to say yes. After all, getting a chance to write again about something that I enjoy seemed a no-brainer. Why not dust off the writing cobwebs for another go-round? And besides, I think my alumni street cred is pretty solid: I'm a paid-up, lifetime member of the Alumni Association; the company I work for matches annual contributions to the UCLA Alumni Scholarships fund; I return to campus to recruit upcoming grads for my employer; I faithfully renew my Bruin football season tickets; I have the 1995 UCLA-Missouri NCAA second-round tournament game permanently stored on my Tivo — and if you have to ask why that's such a big deal, you are reading the wrong magazine.

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