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[strattonxpressions]

Brandon Vu

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

I am Brandon Vu, a second year NPB major from San Jose.

2. What is your earliest childhood memory? 

This is gonna be lowkey kinda foul, but I think I remember it so well for a reason. My earliest childhood memory is at this Lutheran preschool I went to. Every day we would be forced to go to mass. Now I am Catholic, not Lutheran, and also I was like 4, so nothing that happened was processed by my brain. All I can remember is that it was a pretty dark room and that they would give us pennies to donate to the church? I think it was to train us for when we actually had money. But us…being 4, just sucked on those pennies (and maybe ate them 😳), so I think it was a bad idea to give us coins lol 😭

3. What’s stopping you?

I believe what’s stopping me is just a fear of change. I like consistency, consistency is comfortable. If you hide in a box, you never know what dangers await you outside. Now this is very limiting. It’s even hard to walk up to people sometimes because I don’t want to be a burden, I don’t want them to disrupt anything they’re doing, because that would be me introducing change to them, disruption is change.

However, if you hide in a box, you’ll also never know what else you’re missing out there. When I do manage to crawl out of that box, it is scary sometimes, but it is also when I have the most fun, unique experiences. So despite what’s stopping me, I’m trying to stop it…from stopping me lol. I love this question, thank you Chrinny and Lauren for writing this. ❤️

4. What is something about yourself that you’re proud of?

One thing about myself that I am proud of is doing weekly check-ins with my friends every week. Now I may miss a few people every once in a while, but I think it’s just really nice to catch up with people every week, especially since I’m not able to see/call them every week either. It’s a simple thing that I think goes a long way. It’s nice to see what they’re up to, how they’re feeling, the adventures they go on. Especially since some things are not meant/comfortable to be said publicly, it’s cozy to have the opportunity to talk about stuff like that. It helps me be more social and active with my friendships.

5. If you could have any one question answered truthfully, what would it be?

If I could have any one question answered truthfully, I think it would be the question below this one “who is your celebrity crush?” I think it’s just such a fun question and it doesn’t really do much harm. It’s not super invasive, but you can still learn a lot about somebody from it. Now I don’t know why people would be dishonest about it in the first place, or if they ever would be, but maybe it’ll make people remember their answers better.

6. Who is your celebrity/fictional crush? 

Oh girl that list is way too long to list 😳. I had a long think about this before while I was talking to Ella, and I believe I came up with a definitive list for the time being. I was planning to only list a few of them, but I’ll list all 25 >:) (the joke is on me because I’ll have to set up the tumblr page with my dumb long answers 😵‍)

So without further ado in no particular order (last updated in November 2024)

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Glen Powell 

Dev Patel 

Florence Pugh 

Manny Jacinto 

Jessica Henwick 

Diego Luna 

Iman Vellani 

William Jackson Harper 

Janelle Monae 

Pedro Pascal

Adria Arjona

Andrew Garfield

Ana de Armas 

Ke Huy Quan

Karen Fukuhara

Will Poulter 

Ayo Edebiri 

Harvey Guillen 

Geraldine Vishwanathan 

Daniel Radcliffe 

Isabela Merced

Karan Soni 

Katy O’Brian 

Willem Dafoe 

Good luck me in January trying to format this on tumblr :D

note from january: wasn't that bad 🤷‍♀️ also this list is outdated and i refuse to fix it 😤

7. How would you spend your ideal birthday? 

Oh oh! I’ve actually been planning for my next birthday! My birthday is on January 17th. Fortunately for me, PADDINGTON IN PERU RELEASES ON MY BIRTHDAY 🥳. I absolutely love that little bear. I think Paddington 2 is the pinnacle of human creation. My plan is to get my best friend and we’re gonna watch it and then we’re gonna grab Tims? and Davis Creamery afterwards. I think I enjoy nice simple things like this, I don’t need something huge, just to have a nice time. Also Severance season 2 premieres on my birthday and I love that show. 

note from january: paddington 3 was delayed a MONTH and MY BIRTHDAY WAS ON GRILLING

8. What food that starts with the first letter of your name would you only eat for the rest of your life?

If I had to choose a food like that, I would choose banana bread. Bread would be too boring of an answer for this question and I’m allergic to bananas. I honestly can’t think of anything else because bananas is one of my favorite words. Now you may be asking…Brandon wouldn’t you be allergic to banana bread?? This is a true statement. The last time I had banana bread back in 2020, I had an allergic reaction. Now my allergies aren’t deadly and should only happen if I eat raw/unprocessed bananas, and it is possible that the banana slices on top were the reason why I had a reaction…but I love banana bread the few times I had it. This is a huge gamble because this could lead to me just dying, but I think it’s worth it for banana bread 😤.

9. What’s one niche interest you have that you must share with the world?

This is going to get unbelievably nerdy but the one niche interest I have that I must share with the world is the enlightenment of Gwenpool. You may be thinking to yourself “a pink girl deadpool? Pass 🙄” NO. You don’t understand. I used to be one of you. But then I picked up The Unbelievable Gwenpool by Christopher Hastings and Gurihiru. It’s a really cute, really fun book about this girl from our world who gets sucked into the world of Marvel Comics. She learns the importance of self worth and how even if it feels like everything you do is inconsequential to the grand scheme of things, it is still important to someone. It’s both a metacommentary on comics and also a commentary on existentialism that everyone should read! Now someone buy me the gwenpool skin on fortnite. I don’t play it but I want it 😤

10. What is a memory with your closest friend and how does it exemplify your friendship together and how you value friendship as a whole (250 words minimum)

My closest friend is a girly pop named Grace. We have been friends since high school, being partners in Speech and Debate and hanging out all the time. And coincidentally just ended up at the same college together. Last year, we went on a lot of late night walks, ice cream runs, and dinners at Tim’s. It was a lot of fun.

Since school started this year, it had been a while since we were able to hang out just by ourselves. Last time was in September during the summer; school has had us sooooo busy. Especially because we live on opposite sides of Davis, it’s been very difficult to coordinate things.

Last week she was like “hey do you wanna grab lunch or something?” and of course I said yes. So we journeyed downtown in search of food. We were catching up, you know the usual. You gotta build up. And then we stumbled into Boheme’s. I wanted to see the halloween stuff. We ended up in this crafts nook of the store. Everything in this was hella cute, leather jackets, other types of jackets (I don’t know fabrics/clothing lol) and they were all super reasonably priced. We were too broke to buy anything real but we did start digging through the stickers for…a good while lol. We were helping each other find cute stickers for each other’s friends.

We then went to Davis Noodle City and had a lovely meal with a good yap sesh. Obviously what is said in the yap sesh stays in the yap sesh, but I think just the wide variety of emotions that went through the yap sesh was really nice. It was goofy, it was silly, and sometimes it was serious and provocative. We then went to Davis Creamery and got a flight of Matcha, Pumpkin Chai, Avocado Coconut, and Vanilla Caramel Latte. It was absolutely transcendent. Just a lovely lovely day with my best friend.

I think our friendship just perfectly defines what I look for in friendship: versatility. I love how we were able to flow between all these different vibes. In Boheme’s we were laughing at how the hella slayful jackets were also next to the “grandma-core jackets” to our more quiet, contemplative tea spilling in Davis Noodle City. I feel like with Grace I can go through the full range of emotions without fear of embarrassment or judgment. It’s an absolutely lovely feeling and what I look for most in fellowship.

[dilesxpressions]

Sophia Baltasar

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Sophia Baltasar, 3rd Year Global Disease Biology major/Human Development Minor, Millbrae, CA 

2. What’s your roman empire?

How much free time I would have if I wasn’t a pre-med girlie 😞

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

“Sophie you smell really good.” Usually my bf tells me I stink 😍

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

If my life was a movie it’d be a comedy bc I am an April Fool’s baby and people say I was an #accident. 

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Completing the Davis trilogy, going river rafting in Sac, and having a photoshoot at the Dixon sunflower fields with my housemates. 

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

My guilty pleasure is asking Chipotle for 3x sour cream when I get the bowl.

7. What are your bad habits?

Talking too fast, snacking instead of eating real meals, waiting to do my laundry once a month, sleeping at 9pm, having too many kids. 

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

“Good days on my mind.” Fun fact: “Good Days” by SZA was my #1 song on Spotify for 3 years in a row. 

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

Neutral people don’t exist. They always have an opinion leaning to one side, but don’t always get the chance to voice their own opinion.

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

I’m actually part of a community service club on campus (yeah service is sexy or whateva). I was the vice president my second year, and was honestly chilling. One day during winter break, the president had to leave school to focus on personal matters. Yeah, I was not prepared when I found out on the first day of winter quarter. I barely knew anything about logistics, and However, being able to dive head-first into leading this club was the kick I needed to be able to step up. Mind you, it was scary at first having to lead meetings myself, attend weekly meetings with adults in the community that I had never met before, and reorganize the club’s activities. This situation was my blessing in disguise – I had never learned time management better in this period of time. I was in charge of organizing service events, coordinating youth stayovers, planning a banquet, managing finances, and maintaining membership – and found it was something I loved to do (albeit stressful alongside ochem with Nasiri). Knowing that people saw me as a boss definitely put a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but faking it until you make it is the best piece of advice I received from the former president who got me through this. I’m currently the president now, and feel that with the support of my board members and alumni everything is a lot more smooth sailing. Join Rotaract guys the founder was S2K21 namesake Mitty Chang. Service above self.

[dilesxpressions]

Jordan Wu

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

jordan wu, 2nd year, computer science, whidbey island, washington

2. What’s your roman empire?

my roman empire is omar apollo cause he’s so fine n for what?

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

that i have good music taste or good style

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

comedy/adventurous, i want dallas liu to play me

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

getting kayla to go to a rave + having my friends visit me in wa

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

ordering doordash/eating out or rewatching old disney/nick shows

7. What are your bad habits?

being lazy, spending money lit everyday on anything

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

“got a shift at 10am, gotta dip at 10 pm, gotta get that cash, won’t get past the lunch break, i aint even had a smoke break” by SZA

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

pickles are so gross. like ur just eating soggy ass old cucumbers. sorry 2 my pickle girls :(

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

The first time I remember that I had to step up and be a leader was during my sophomore year of high school. I was a part of Key Club (a student led high school service organization) lol. My sister was the previous president from the previous year but she had graduated. The club didn’t have any officers and was starting to fall apart. I took it upon myself to help get the club back and running again. I chose to do this because Key Club was something that I really enjoyed doing. I became president as a sophomore. It was a little scary at first because I was only a sophomore. However, becoming president taught me a lot about leadership and helped me develop my skills. As president, I had to run the meetings and plan all the service events. I had to contact different community organizations as well as national organizations to plan out events that we could do at our school. I also had to regularly keep in contact with Kiwanis, similar to our advisors. After becoming president, I started to look for other officers to create a board. Working with the board, I would delegate people to do different things and have officer meetings every week to be able to check up on them and make sure everything was getting done. My leadership definitely paid off as I was able to grow the club into one of the biggest clubs at our school and still to this day it is going strong!