GRADUATION: THE END OF AN ERA


The CHEN FAMILY


The cousins

4 wonderful years concluded yesterday. Officially, officially, @ the end of June when I finish one more summer school class. Yesterday was a big big day not only because it was my graduation, but it marked the first time the Chen Family was physically together in over 20 months. 20 months! Almost 2 years! I hadn't seen my mom in 19 months! My cousins Albert and Liberty also came to the festivities and I was very happy we were all together to celebrate this event. Lining up before the main ceremony @ 8 am was nostalgic. I lined up with Mell, Grace,Cin, Annette, Amy, Annie, and the guys, in the BIOLOGY line, all so we could sit together....near the front. We took a gazillion pictures in line and all these memories came flying back in my head:I had met these particular friends the 1st week of school 4 years ago.... most of them at rush or in my dorm room. The different ways we all met, how we met, where we met, why we met come together to form a fascinating story and saga for our lives.

Mell: I met in line during APASS Orientation, and she was also in my Group, and it was then that she decided she wasn't gonna like me cuz I said I came to SC cuz I didn't get into UCLA.
Grace: she lived 3 doors down from me in the North Residential Dorms.
Cin: while gathering outside of EVK before a Rush event, I found out she was from Metairre, Louisiana and that she was friends with our mutual friend, Yvonne.
Annette, Annie, Amy: Either @ APASS Orientation or @ our 1st Pledge Meeting to elect our cabinet. Annette and her broken sandal from Macys. She was so pissed about it.

From those lil moments, incredible friendships have been built over the course of 4 years with many memories to come. Ahh, I thank these wonderful people for letting me be part of their lives, and them being a part of mine. The times for Tea, Dinner, Shopping, Brunch, prepping for Xmas Dinner, 7-hour Jell-o, Seung's Tan 4-Runner that we managed to pawn from him to let us use, pledging, dp-ing, X-mas Dinner I have to mention again, Cin's mad case of stubborness, Drunken Dialing, past/present bf's, UV, Elegance, the list continues forever. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. xoxo.

The ceremonies themselves were wonderful as the tuition money we've paid has paid off into a wonderful greek food reception, a big white nice tent to have our ceremony under, newly planted flower beds all over campus, and just a beautiful campus in general. The speeches, the presidential address, everything. Thanks mom and dad for paying my valued tuition of $120,000 (thank god for financial aid), thank you to my siblings for taking this journey with me, the friends who have made the past 4 years the best 4 years of my life, and I thank myself, for choosing to come to SC, and for letting the past 4 years unfold in the most amazing way. I am truly truly truly blessed. Full steam ahead into the next chapter of the wonderful life of Jess. You with me?

Personal Mantra: "Anything less, wouldn't be Jess." [thanks Cin, for helping me come up with this! You are truly amazing, just like I told you today.]

definition: I really do strive to be good, to be great, to give everyone the best of me. So never ever doubt that. Not that you ever shoulda. I dont' give anyone less than the best. Ya hear?

First off, I spent a wonderful day with Cin today. Selling back books. Paying off library fines. Buying Dayquil @ UV. Eating @ Panchos @ UV. And just talking. Seeing her sooOoooo in LuuuurrrrrVe with her bf Jamie, knowing how happy he makes her, and how happy she makes him, makes my day. There's not enough lovin' going on in the world, so I'm glad she's having a great big vat of it. I love seeing people so happy and knowing her, makes me believe that there really could me someone out there for muah. hahha. I'm so grateful to have a friend like Cin and I hope everyone has someone like her. Cin..thanks for listening to me about my life and everything that goes on with it today, I truly appreciate your company and your listening ear....even though I'm still goin hold youre "stubborness pledge year" over your heard....for foreverrrrrrrrrrr.

On that note, thank you to my big sister Kat aka "dajie, kath" for writing me a superb dedication to me today....sharing one of the rare "emotionally revealing touchy-feely" moments in the Chen family. And so it is my turn, for one of my ONE in a MILLION moments of sharing a piece of my heart.

Four blazin' years have gone by and you've been my soundingboard to whom I share and told some of the best moments of the past four years to. How wonderful deltas have been in my life, how i've gone on and on about how I love my friends at SC and SC, how I have loved my jobs and internships, how I've loved everything I've had the chance to get my paws on. I only hope that you have and will experience all of these wonderful feelings and people in your life. I'm happy to have been able to share some of the most important parts of my life in the past four years with you....i.e. mell, all the deltas, skess, tin, newline, j.crew, movies, my love for g.clooney and michael vartan, alias, gossip, cool industry perks, movie screenings, and whatever connections I have. Thank you for the Laker and Kings games, for letting me borrow your car pledge year cuz I know how hard it was for you to even think about lettin me borrow your car, and most of all, for being understanding about my commitment, dedication, loyalty to everything I am invovled with: deltas, work, and school, for those times I had to bail/couldn't play with you and wei and other important people in our lives. Though I have shared this much, there's still a ways to go, way more depth to achieve.

since we'll be living together soon, I'm sure that will bring our r-ship to another sisterly level, that I'm slightly dreading, because with sisters, no courtesy is reallly neccessary re: dirty dishes, and whatever else. I look forward to one bill for dad to pay for the apt, and to more laughs others will have of watching the Chen Gurls in-the-flesh...in person is what I mean. Interacting on a daily basis. And providing entertainment for all the world to see. Hi, wei! Had to get you in there somewhere. And i guess, with the Chen Gurls together, we can now go on the hunt, for 3 great {BLANK} Boys to go with the 3 Chen Girls.i.e. let's find 3 great bf's, for 3 great gurls. xoxo --- your sis, Chi

OUR ANTHEM..........
[For all the awesome sexy single gurls in the world to know...
and ...
For all the BONEHEAD guys out there who need to wake up, read that, and realize, go for the TOP. ASSHOLES.Oops, did that just slip out?]
---stolen from mell..from annette...from someone else.

Women are like apples on trees.
The best ones are at the top of the tree.
The men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples
from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy.
So, sometimes the apples at the top think something is wrong with them,
when in reality, THEY'RE amazing.
They just have to wait for the right man to come along,
the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the trees.

HALLELUJAH. WORD to the WISE. Hollaback.

Full Circle: A Decade Later...The EuroCrew is Still Chums



mission: Then Chen Gurls. The Cheng Duo. and Ben "Ming Ming" Foo. All of our
parents have been friends since forever. They all grew up together/and or worked or lived together before any of us were ever born. And their kids, aka "The Chen Gurls, Cheng Duo, and Ben", have all become friends thanks to one lovely EASTERN EUROPE motorcoach trip in the summer of 1993. A decade ago. European memories of a haunted hotel in Baden, a mission to find a SWIMMING POOL in each hotel we stayed at, throwing trash, popcorn, bottled water, and whatever food in the hotel room, out our hotel room window in VENICE cuz we thought it would be cool, eating too many potato balls, having a molester tour guide named steve, never sleeping, riping out the interior of this plane that ELVIS apparently flew on, many memories were made. It's been 8-10 years since we've all seen each other, and seeing each other again was super-swell and fabulous. The EuroCrew, forever in my heart. Chili's coasters from Seattle, baby!!!
Might be another 10 years before we are all together again, so we celebrated with japanese food, mojitos, coronas, and azian clubbing. Witness the reunion @ http://www-scf.usc.edu/~chenj/mylife.html