• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

After picking up my visiting friend from the airport two weeks ago, I was disgusted at the first thing that came out of her mouth.

Not “How have you been?” or “What’s been happening at school?” but rather, she asked me “What celebrities do you think we’ll run into at UCLA this week?”

I didn’t even feel like answering her question, one that I’m sure many others have also heard when showing out-of-town friends around campus. At the same time though, I realized that she wasn’t exactly the one at fault.

As Bruins, we’re sometimes guilty of bragging to our friends and family back home about the celebrity encounters we have frequently, whether it’s interacting with Kevin Spacey at a question- and-answer session in Westwood or asking for Mike Myers’ autograph after the Jack Benny Awards.

Sure, try to deny it, but we’ve all contributed a little in making UCLA appear to be an academic front for a star-gazing observatory of celebrities and movie stars, and quite frankly, there’s no one here to blame but ourselves.

Many of us don’t realize that each time we gush with stories about celebrity sightings and movie premieres in town, rather than other aspects of our campus life, we’ve diminished everything else that is great about our education and our school. Each time our celebrity run-ins are the first thing we talk about when we catch up with friends and family from back home, we make everything else about our experiences at UCLA seem even less important.

Why not talk about that great professor you had this quarter? Or the awesome on-campus theater performance you saw last weekend?

Instead of telling your parents that you saw Pete Sampras playing tennis this afternoon, or that you spotted Ozzy Osbourne buying organically grown peaches at Whole Foods, tell them something that shows them your education at UCLA has consisted of more than just learning about the best way to get someone’s attention from the bleachers at red carpet arrivals. It may be hard to forget that we live only steps away from Hollywood when Sunset Boulevard is lined with dozens of entrepreneurs selling maps to stars’ homes for $10, but let’s try to focus at least a little and pretend that we don’t care.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s exciting to play basketball with Master P at the Wooden Center, or jog past Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell on the track at Drake Stadium. But they are just people. They became successful because they focused on their work. If there’s anything you should get from a celebrity sighting, it’s that you should work hard too.

So next time a movie is shooting on campus or TV cameras are rolling, I challenge you to walk by without a head turn or a neck stretch above the crowd. Your college education is teaching you to be more than that.