ok...so here it is. my grand opening for you...i didn't get to talk at senior dinner, so here is my piece for you to all here (without me crying).

the first time i met...

pj: ok, he said i pulled him over to the PSA booth during quad day his 1st year, but i don't remember that. but this is what i DO remember: i'm at the cube for officer hours, and this guy comes up to me while i'm inside the cube. he was skinny and young lookin with braces...so i thought to myself, aw wut a cute lil freshman. he asked me where he can sign up for football...and somehow i ended up askin him his name...and i can't remember too well, but i think the first time he told me his name was penny, but i could be wrong. then i asked him, oh are you a freshman? oops. he's was like, um no, i'm a junior. that's when he said that he transfered from COD. after that, i prolly asked him if he wanted to do fashion show or something, but i can't remember ;)

romel: DANG. i was in math 116 cuz i did shitty on the placement tests cuz i was studying calculus and forgot my trig. and i didn't wanna take 116 in the summer before freshman year. it was in roger adams lab, across the street from noyes. the lecture hall had only entrance way, i would always get there early cuz i was paranoid and didn't like goin to class late. the door was at the side of the lecture room, in the front, so when you walked in, all of the seats were to your right. i would always sit closest to the door. romel would always sit in the far section of seats. so i'd be sitting in the first section, mindin my own business, watchin people walk by to their seats...and this GUY walks in all pouty. then he turns his head and looks at me as he walks by...you know that look...with his eyes kinda squinting...the look that says "who the fuck do you think you are?" MAYN! i prolly had this look of disgusted shock, thinkin to myself, "wut the FUCK is HIS problem?" i was just sittin there waitin for CLASS to start. GEEEEEEEEEZ romelama.

jeff dayson: hahaha...he hung out with dave camit, dinna yap and roshni thakker. the first time they went to a psa event, him and dave were all ghettofied. i felt really bad cuz everyone called them the "uic boys". i didn't really talk to him until i started hangin out and studyin at weston (weston love!)...and he's SUCH a sweetheart :)

karen padua: the first time i met this girl...i saw the x-files movie with my sister and her boyfriend (now fiance ;)) at the theater by glendale heights...i don't remember wut it was...i think it starts with an m or something...anyways, karen was working there and sold us the tickets. and dave recognized her as one of justin's friends (so i met her before i met justin...hehehe) and i think karen recognized dave too. so we watched the movie, but the projector kinda messed up in the beginning, so when we saw karen on our way out, she was like, "gimme your tickets and i can get your money back...i'll just tell them that you were unhappy that the movie projector wasn't fixed quick enough." well that wasn't word for word, but essentially she got our money back. :)

mikey caamic: :) he was one of the first new people i met on campus. it was a sunday...me and my cousin marlon, who was also a frosh at the time, were walkin to the union for the all-nighter thing. we both lived at allen hall, so when u walk to the union, u have to walk all the way up the quad by flb then davenport and so on...so when we were in one of the x cross walks, we saw a big group of about 7 or 8 filipinos walkin towards us (jason, leslie, mikey, mike, chris, nut, eric,...?) ...and i was gettin kinda nervous...but it so happened that marlon knew mikey through one of his friends that went to lane tech. i wondered if he was a fob the first time we met...soorie mikey! so we went to go to a lil party at bromley (thrown by laarni, marlene, vivian and their other roomie). but some of us were hesitant on goin since we didn't know them, so we hung out in eric's single at bromley...which leads me to my next story...

justin estacio: rewind! my sister and dave estacio had been goin out for about a year before my freshman year. during that time, i had been to his house at least SIX times with my sister, and i never even met justin...well, i think i saw him leave the house once...he was always out galabanting galabanting. ;) so back to my other story...me, marlon, nut and eric were all in eric's room at bromley while leslie, mikey, chris, mike and jason were in marlene's room. chris comes back to eric's room and tried to get us to go to the party and he was describing new people...'yeah you guys should come! there's this really cool guy over there named justin over there, he's fuckin hilarious!' ...me and marlon look at each other... me: "do you know his last name? is it estacio?" chris: "man i dunno...maybe..." so we checked out the party, and lo and behold, it's him. man, and when i saw him, i was like, "hi i'm fatima! my sister is goin out with your brother! nice to meet you!" hahahaha...


so, it's hard. it's been really hard. everyone says "don't cry, don't be sad, you know you'll see them again and hang out." but that's not the point. that's not the point at all. see, i have abandonment issues. i'm the youngest of 3 girls, and i was never really alone...the first time i was alone was when my sisters were both at college for a year. and that was really hard for me. see, the 4.5ers are leaving me behind. and last year, they left me behind. now there is only 3 of us left. and you might think to yourself, "well you still have us...what are we, chopped liver???" but it's not like that. i love you guys. you make me happy...i'm grateful that you are here with me and keeping me company. but you see, these are the first people i met in my college career that didn't think of me as claudine and christine's little sister. they were my own...they ARE my own. to them, christine and claudine are referred to as FATIMA's sisters. i grew up with them for FOUR years. that may seem like a short time...and it is...but here when you're tucked away far from home, these people are all you have to keep you sane, or make you insane. and now they're leaving me. my brothers and sisters are leaving me again. and i know i'll see them again, i know that. but they aren't gonna be down the street for me to play with or hang out with...i can't walk over to their places and hang out till the wee hours of the morning and pass out. for a semester i'll be without the people i first knew, that i grew up, that i had all my first memories of this campus with. and that's why i cried. i hope you understand...just let me cry. i don't do it often enough.

to the class of '98 - i love you guys. and i'll see you again. but i'll just miss you for now, ok?