Sunday, January 8, 2017

To My Friend Ying-Ling From Decades Ago.

You're the one person I regret not keeping in touch with after graduating from college. We had some fun, didn't we? I still remember oversleeping and you trying desperately to wake me up from outside my window so that we wouldn't miss our architectural history exam, then trying to fast-walk to class only to have shin splints halfway to class.

I don't know if you noticed, but I pretty much coasted through school, barely paying attention to subjects that weren't interesting to me -- like structures, professional practice, architectural history, etc. -- so that I could enjoy thinking about design, music, photography, and furniture design. I suppose I've never changed in this regard. I even secretly harbored desires to transfer to the Art Center or Sci-Arc.

I screwed up a lot of things after graduation. I didn't take my interview with Coop Himmelblau seriously enough, and I didn't communicate effectively with Michael Rotondi's office, resulting in a missed interview. Neil Denari was very nice, but my timing was off. I guess I was a Gen X slacker before it was made popular by Douglas Coupland.

Anyway, I was going through my box of negatives and slides looking for photos of my father when I came across this photo I took of you when we were driving to Arizona and immediately started reminiscing about the fun we had. I miss you, my friend.

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