Be more than a student! Be more than an athlete! Be more than YOU…

How many of us have gazed into the vast expanse of UCLA and thought, “Here is where I will find myself”;  not necessarily in reference to the classroom, but the totality of club activities, events, and interactions that make a UCLA student more than the average college student. How many of us have walked through Bruin Walk believing that the world is at our fingertips, it’s just a matter of getting involved? Lastly, how many of us never considered the idea that there was a price to be paid for being a true Bruin and a true vanguard for your dreams and community? The administration bask in the “renaissance man” culture imbuing the establishment, yet fall silent when they cannot provide solutions to the rampant anxiety, depression, and self-plaguing experienced by those students who are pushed to conquer the world without first conquering themselves. You may have seen this student, active, involved, willing to sacrifice time naively for the progress of their peers and the institution at large. If you weren’t that student you probably thought to yourself, “ How do they even have time to do so much, I must not be doing enough.” Now look again today, where are they? That’s the question UCLA does not want to answer. That’s the question UCLA hopes we do not start asking ourselves, because in answering that question UCLA reveals one of its biggest flaws: though it incubates multi-faceted individuals with the the potential to do anything and everything, UCLA fails to cultivate a community in which those who sacrifice everything are left with more than a shadow of themselves.

Perhaps we are the ones to blame. It is truly up to us to not only be aware of the sacrifices we all have to make in life, but also to be human enough to hold those who lead us into the future up. The future stands on ALL of our shoulders, it does not rest solely on those of the few willing to give their all for a future not their own. I have witnessed great individuals – people who come in with the hopes of making a difference in ways unlike anything that we have ever seen prior –  have their sense of self and, even worse, their humanity, exhausted at the hands of a community and institution that gives people the capacity to lead, but does not support those who make that sacrifice. Look at our community, where leaders disappear because we focus on their shortcomings, rather than directing angst or criticisms to the very institutions who place that burden on student leaders and activists. We tend to forget that they are our peers too.

So where are these “renaissance bruins”? They are in the shadows healing from the wounds suffered from both what they fought for and who they fought for, all while trying to catch up in school!! So next time you think of a fallen leader or an inactive activist or anyone that retreated back to simply being a student, think of the price they paid to change the world around them and think of the price we pay because we, to an extent, are the reason for their downfall…