Marc Ridilla • Brown College • Biochemistry

But now that I am in my senior year, I realize that my lab experience is simply what has been demanded of me to succeed in undergraduate life with an eye toward the future; I might as well have been saying that my favorite part about college is the classes. I realize now that those experiences wouldn’t have been much different had I gone to any other university, and that what I couldn’t have enjoyed at most other universities is the residential college life.

Before I arrived as a freshman, I received the email address of my roommate Jeff “El Jefe” Silverman (astrophysics). A few short correspondences later we realized we would get along very well, and our similarities have become even more apparent over the years. I came to understand that the college Orientation Week coordinators and advisors put a lot of effort into matching incoming freshmen roommate pairs, and I deeply appreciate their foresight regarding Jeff and me and their placement of us on the eighth floor. Before long into the year, some very social upperclassmen neighbors insisted on introducing us to the social atmosphere of college life and Rice in general. The training was hard, but we earned their respect for our devotion to promoting the social atmosphere of Brown college.

An “open-door” policy on our floor led to a very friendly environment and introduced Jeff and me to our neighbor and future suite-mate Trey “Keyboard” Armstrong (economics). The three of us remained on the eighth floor for our sophomore year, during which time our devotion to social life earned us the affectionate nickname of the “Iron Triad.” As the upperclassmen who had so enthusiastically welcomed me as a freshman had moved into the suites at Brown for the 2002–03 school year, I assumed the responsibility of welcoming the incoming freshmen of 2002 with a party of my own, a tradition my roommates and I maintained for the two following years.

Our seniority allowed our move to the suites for our junior year, where we joined forces with a mutual friend, Edgar Pagan (architecture) and vowed to proceed “All Gunz Blazin’” into all shared endeavors. It was with that esprit d’corps that we vowed to promote happiness for all visitors to our room. Luckily our room earned the new nickname “Club Amazing” due to the success of the parties we had thrown, and that has served as a reference to our room ever since.

Now in my senior year, still living in Club Amazing with Jeff, Trey, and Edgar, I begin to lament the impending dissolution of our little team. Our different foci and backgrounds have helped us to become more open-minded, and our shared friendliness and nobility have strengthened these values in us. I honor my best friends, my roommates, in this article. I know that as we spread across the world, we will carry with us the values we learned here in Club Amazing and at Rice University. I will never forget the love and the fun, as well as the fights and the work, and I honestly say that college life would have been nothing without them.

Before I leave Rice University to go wherever fate leads, I would like to use this opportunity to thank Malcolm Gillis, Zenaido Camacho, and the administration that was devoted to my quality of life during my first three years here, and I would like to wish David Leebron all the best of luck in effecting his vision for the future of Rice. Thanks as well to Brown College masters and resident associates and, of course, the professors.