Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Friend spotlight: Javier "I'm Culturally Torn" Sanchez - Part 1



My friend Javier left for Japan this morning. Today is dedicated to his grand legacy.

Bio: Javier was born when I was a sophomore in High School. We were both auditioning for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Javier says that his enduring memory of our first encounter involves my script randomly prodding him in the olde brown cheerio. I believe him. It would be false to say that he wasn't a slight timid when I first met him, but having been surrounded by terrible (read: amazing!) friends whom I had learned the art of horrid acts as signs of affection, my instant adoration of this man was evident. Javier is now studying in Japan (aka "The Land of Make Believe") and upon returning to the states will resume at M.I.T.

The thing I like about Javier is that he, like many of my friends, has heart. Javier does not restrict himself to a single facet of life. Most people would probably place him in the kingdom of "math-geek/tech nerd" upon first experience; I know there is a lot more to this half breed than just numbers,graph paper, and different colored pens which differentiate parts of homework only decipherable by the user. While you and your girlfriends were getting fat off of miller lite and mango martinis, Javier (almost) built a robot.

Javier also stuck with me in the gym during my phase of, "Hey, I want to find the most ridiculous workouts possible on the internets!" We did monster volume 10 sets of 10 workouts which included : squats,pull-ups, deadlifts, and BECNH PRESES! Good times. Javier pushed himself and stuck with it and as a result gained a solid 15 lbs of lean mass (which resulted in a short period of time in which Javier would casually walk around shirtless, it's good to be proud).

Javier is also a man of music. A proficient pianist, he would take his piano out into the halls and fill the dorms with music, stop and cuss when he would make a mistake, recompose himself, and then continue to play. If you were ever anywhere near Javier's room, you could hear bountiful singing, humming, and doo-diddling coming from his computer chair. He is a slight nasally, but then again some of the best vocalists of all time owe their distinct styles to their noses.
Javier. Likes. To. Sing.

Javier games. He's an avid FPS gamer (css and tf2) and likes to get banned from servers for having offensive names which were never intended to be as racial as they read. He also likes to pretend that he is a girl during the majority of the match only to become the bearer of harsh truth via voice com at the round's conclusion. I've never done that.

Javier saved me once when I was an undergrad and decided to drink a bit more than I should have been allowed. I didn't vomit, but I was in no shape to successfully go pee by myself. Thanks.

I will not go into detail about Mr. Sanchez's love life, but I will say this much: Giant-Economy- Sized box. Why? Perhaps he was just trying to save some money? Perhaps he was just being cautious? Perhaps he was blessed with insurmountable vigor. We should all be so fortunate.

Mr. Sanchez, I tip my hat to you sir. May the land of the rising sun treat you as one of its wayward own. I love you my friend.


JAVIER SANCHEZ YAMAGISHI