by B.J. on 10/12/2004 09:24:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

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UCLA: Reinvention of Perceptions

I feel like a UCLA student. UCSC is a distant memory, almost like a dream that I wish lasted just a bit longer. It's like time to step out of the conceptual into the physical world.

A lot of this feeling like a UCLA student has to do with my narrow, earlier, outsider perceptions that I reported when I first got here have been broken.

I now realize that little things like all the short hair was probably due to it being summer, that the creativity won't be found in the sciency places, that the south side of campus is naturally full during the summer because it's easy to fall behind in science, that the library is not so full compared to how many students are actually there, and not everyone goes to class. Phew. . .there are "normal" people. There are really too many students too even try and classify this school --- there's all kinds.

However, compared to most schools, the most prominent feature would be the amount of Asian fools. And usually with them, you'd categorize them as politically apathetic and invisible. But then here at UCLA, there just up in your face. There's the Christian Asians, the slutty hapa asian girl, the politically involved Asian guy. Good lord, it's like Asians have personalities !

Also helping to reinvent my perceptions, I have much better feelings about my classes.

Recall that I took math and science over the summer --- not so anymore ! My classes look like SC classes except LA's are much more diverse. So it feels sort of like home. I feel much more free, especially in my Education class in which I hear people actually repeat the same diatribe and me actually being slightly ahead of that diatribe.

I'm glad I have this freedom to chill at the bookstore. I sit and read whatever there from Jared Diamond books to LSAT preps to magazines when there's nothing else to do cause you're very welcome to do that there.

Even though I consider the schools pretty even academic-wise now that I'm settled in my classes (I think, barring any low grades, but then I look at the athletes who have no time to study and think that I'm going to do better), the one thing that UCLA beats UCSC is opportunities.

Walking through the Bruinwalk. . .it's just tough to ignore so many campus groups and so many opportunities, at least for me. These people are up on my face. They make it as if they really really really want you to come to their thing. I even talked to some people.

Along with that big mess of opportunities also a lot of shit to see. Fowler Museum was interesting at least for me --- it was about "Latino" religions, like voodoo, Santeria. Michael Moore came and spoke today which I sort of listened to and heard from far away (I was too lazy to pay 2 dollars). He repeated the same thing that I paid 10 bucks for at Santa Cruz, with some update on Bush's latest debate mishaps.

The Bruin Republicans standing outside the Tennis Center in which it was held looked very stupid trying to protest for like 2 minutes before realizing that they had no brain cells and were not going to convince anyone to change their beliefs. Ha, one of those fools even tried to pick a fight with someone going in to watch. What's sad is that their radical right-wing religious guy was fighting with them or something. But anyway, tomorrow, Ugly Duckling will perform for free. Gotta remember that.

Now despite all this high talk of LA, I'm not saying that I would have gone to LA for the first two years of my education. I still think Santa Cruz and the education and friends I got there is what was best for me. It worked out really well. Honestly, I don't think I would survive UCLA without having been there at SC first. I will always remember it as the place where I learned to think.

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