With a Little Help from my Friends

I remember the first time I met Romeo. Like a scene straight out of Wonder Years, we each lent the other an ear, and "tried not to sing outta key." Our peculiar friendship began right smack in the middle of the UCLA Student Store while I perused a Salvador Dali art book after attending UCLA's AAP Scholar's Day.

His animated frame came bursting onto the scene to the right of me and we started talking art and politics from the get go. He seemed much smarter than me (but not cooler) and, as his name highlights, he had no problem taking center stage, subtly dramatic, somewhat virile, and highly complicated like a true Shakespearean character.

I was amused by how he drove home each of his talking points with his hands and head, a half-cocked smile nailing each issue with an academic and comedic flare that jerked to a beat only he knew. He's always been an academic. He's always danced to his own rhythm. Imagine our surprise when two months after our initial meeting at the UCLA store, some campus office had placed us to room together in the dorms. A mixture of chance and fate.

Fast forward nearly six years later and the guy's got a Masters and is beginning a PhD program this fall. Having received numerous offers at top universities, he's got some difficult decisions to make, but some very good options. The long hours spent simultaneously stressing and studying, hoping that no one could rightfully claim us to be fakes at the university, unworthy of being accepted into UCLA, are long gone. We studied harder. Pushed each other further. And even found ourselves at each other's throats throughout our undergraduate careers. We've owned different paths, taken different steps, and entered different worlds.

Yet we found each other sharing dinner the other night with mutual friends. We sat there eating ramen noodles in Little Tokyo (Japantown), while catching up--talking sports, relationships, future plans, etc. We talked race and class ... laughing, sharing, and analyzing the night away. We even shared a shot of Patron and some hearty smiles. Good times for old buddies and roommates, fellow students and lovers of life and Love.

Congratulations, bro! I'm proud of you! But don't let it get to your head. Ponte a estudir! (haha) and Don't Let me Down. 'Cause I'm sure you'll agree that Cocker had it right doggy, "I get by with a little help from my friends."