Posts Tagged ‘Red velvet cake’

Josh Groban, Byron Yang and Red Velvet Cake

Opinion | February 11th, 2008 | No Responses
By Ross Boomer (former Editor)

Case Study: Maximizing My Life Utility and Post Abroad Efficiency

Problem: Did I come back from abroad more lost than found?

Never in my life did I think I would write this:

Josh Groban changed me.

On Sunday February 10, 2008 at approximately 2:34 am in an overpriced but delicious West Hollywood diner, Josh Groban raised me up.

Really.

As a probable gesture of inherent love towards all man(kind), THE Josh Groban – curls and all – gave my table a piece of untouched red velvet cake.* And as I joined my posse of gallivanting, well-dressed brothers in digging my hands into God’s next best gift besides Josh (who did not give us forks), I only had two things on my mind:

“How the fuck is this happening?” and “Where is Byron Yang?”

Like many of my fellow junior brethren, I took a break from the Club Med College lifestyle last year for a semester “studying” abroad in hopes of gaining true insight of the world, and my life. Thus, not only did I learn that the French are as anti-American, socialist-leaning as we think they are, but I also decided my life, too, would be back on track and refreshed when I returned to California. When my plane arrived at Ontario on a sunny Sunday morning, I felt like I was a freshman again, ready to experience everything that they wrote about in those college guidebooks my parents bought me.

Unfortunately, that honeymoon lasted about as long as the sunshine.

Hug-filled reunions and conversations about missing students, hijacked buses and Patagonian skinny dipping quickly changed to consulting firms, MCATs and LSATs and who got first round interviews with Goldman Sachs (oh… you didn’t get one?).

Small classrooms with English speaking professors quickly turned into overambitious, unjaded sophomores listening to their own exalted voices and macroeconomic formulas that just weren’t as exciting as I envisioned them last November.

And my weekend nights were definitely not what I remembered. CMC parties apparently became too popular for me, and everyone else too. Thus, by Week Three, I found myself taking a far more alternative approach to Saturdays and having a gay ol’ time barhopping as a newly christened 21-year-old in West Hollywood amongst the fabulous men who lived there.

Nevertheless, it was Josh Groban’s generosity that brought me back to thinking about the CMC I was missing, and the hopes of that maybe I can still rediscover what was supposed to have been there. In other words, I somehow remembered my former roommate’s resignation email to the junior class and his parting advice that still makes my contacts blur:

A Parting Story:

Freshman year I went on a date with a girl (whom shall remain anonymous), and took her out to dinner. I really wanted to impress her, so I began asking her a series of incredibly deep and philosophical questions, all of which would prove to her how adroit I was. “You know the TV show the Bachelorette?” I said, “What if the girl doesn’t like any of the bachelors and instead has a crush on the guy who holds the boom mike?” She thought for a moment, and replied “That would never happen.” I quipped, “Of course it could! I mean, there are a 6 billion people in the world, and there are only 25 guys on the show. Statistically, there’s a good chance she won’t like any of them.” I smiled triumphantly and began wondering what color her bed sheets were. The girl shook her head. “You’re wrong. The guys on the show aren’t chosen at random. They have to apply to be in the show, send in headshots, and get interviewed by the producers. They have background checks run on them, and most importantly, they’re all hot! I mean, these guys are hand selected for the Bachelorette to choose from. If you ask me, the men selected to be in the show were all better picks than the Bachelorette would have made herself if she was on her own. By the way, is your hall mate single?”

That night led to quite a bit of realizations. The girl realized, through careful interrogation, that tequila was my hall mate’s only weakness, and proceeded to seduce him the following weekend. My friends soon realized, upon hearing that I had spent 55 dollars on dinner and a movie, that I had far less “game” than I had previously claimed. My hall mate, though, realized too late that the condom had broken, and spent the next day going from clinic to clinic trying to find the morning-after pill.

But I what I comprehended while trying to fall asleep as drunken people returned to the dorm after a night of partying was simple. I had landed myself on my own version of the Bachelorette. I was interacting daily with 250 other intelligent, personable, crème of the crop leaders that had been hand picked for the qualities that make extraordinary people stand out from the crowd. I could not have chosen a better bunch of people to spend 2 and half years with myself. And writing this email today, I have realized that I have fallen in love with every single one of you, and will miss you all very much. My parting advice is simple. Continue meeting everyone here that you can, and talk with them, form relationships with them. Love them. Your time here is short, and the persons surrounding you can change your life.

Yours Always,

Byron Yang

Byron Yang never lost hope with CMC, and neither should anyone else who is trapped in a room trying to study for an interview or a test or a class that will somehow land them a place on what now appears to be a far more daunting path after returning to the collegiate world. Byron’s words remind us of the most important reason why we chose CMC over that slightly more bumper sticker-worthy institution back East: the people.

I have no complaints or regrets about any of my actions abroad and beyond. People change. I changed. But that cake raised me up a bit so I can stand on mountains and maybe see above the Claremont smog.

*Please note: Later reports found out that the REAL giver of the cake was a group of executives of major recording labels and not Josh Groban. However, Groban appeared with the men soon after the cake was given, and his overall philanthropic demeanor was equated to the red velvet. Despite the actual chain of events, it was still Groban that inspired me.