I was born in Taipei, Taiwan on May 30, 1976.  The first five years of my life in Taiwan were happy times.  I was the favorite little boy of all of my relatives since I was the oldest boy in the family who stilled lived in Taiwan.  My older cousin Philip had moved to Florida so I had "seniority" if such a thing is possible at such a young age.  I remember being taken along everywhere and always getting tons of attention from everyone... that was the good life!

In 1981, my family moved to the U.S.  My mom, dad, and big sister (Dolly), and I moved around quite a lot within California during our first few years here.  My parent's pursuit of the "American Dream" took us to places such as Glendale, Monterey Park, Burbank, West Hollywood, Anahiem, Colton, and Alta Loma... just to name a few.  So I didn't have a very settled childhood.

I'd have to say that the early years in the U.S. weren't memorable.  Life in the U.S. consisted of bits and pieces of memories from here and there, but no unifying links between all of the people and places that crossed my life.  I always felt a great sense of loss and sadness each time we moved to a new location because that meant that I would have to start over making new friends and finding my own little world in the new place.  So besides my early years in Taiwain, I'd have to say that I've never been securely attached to anyone or any place.

From kindergarten to fifth grade, I can only name two childhood friends... Kang Min Ahn and Lisa Kobayashi.  The three of us attended Walt Disney Elementary school in Anaheim.  Kang and I were best friends until, you guessed it, my family moved away.  Kang and I kept in touch all the way until sophmore/junior year in high school, but we somehow lost touch.  I had such an empty feeling inside when I tried calling Kang's house in Diamond Bar (he later moved too), only to find that his family didn't live there anymore.

As fortune would have it, Lisa played a key role in reuniting Kang and I.  During my first few weeks at Cal, there were many events for the incoming freshmen.  At one particualr event, the Chancellor's Ball, a girl came up to me and asked me if my name was Erick Lin and if I attended Walt Disney Elementary School.  I was surprised that this stranger knew so much about me.  Now this is where I made a fool of myself.  The girl asked me if I remembered who she was and although I'm great with names and faces, I couldn't for the life of me remember her... perhaps, the years of moving around and seeing so many different people contributed to my forgetfulness.   Well, she introduced herself as Lisa Kobayashi, a fellow classmate of mine at Walt Disney Elementary School.  She told me that she saw me at various badminton tournaments during our high school years, but she wasn't sure if I was who she thought I was.  An important piece of information that she passed on to me was that Kang was attending Stanfurd!

I got Kang's e-mail address at Stanfurd and Lisa's e-mail address at Cal.  I kept in touch with my two former elementary school classmates for a while, but given our busy college schedules keeping in touch got lost in the shuffle.  Lisa was in my Chem 1A class with Professor Hearst, but I believe she went on to take Chem 1B while I took Chem 3A (o-chem).  Well, Lisa and I both learned that Kang didn't use e-amil very much.  On the other hand, I though I was keeping in touch with Lisa.  However, we eventually lost contact.

During the summer of my junior year, I learned that Kang was working in Berkeley.  I hadn't seen or heard from in for a while, so we decided to hang out and catch up on old times.  We tried to have a reunion and invite Lisa too, but by that time she had had enough of her former classmates.  People often take each other for granted without realizing it, and I suppose Lisa felt that way.  She declined to hang out and have coffee with us.  I think of myself as a good friend but I don't always take the initiative so it's quite possible that I didn't do enough to nuture my second chance at developing a friendship with Lisa.  I've attempted to contact Lisa a few more times over the years, but it was too late.  As for Kang, I haven't heard from him in a while and I hope that he hasn't left Stanfurd for good yet because if he has then I will have lost my only remaining childhood friend for the second time...

With most of my college friends off to med school, grad school, or working, I find myself reflecting on my past failures with friendships and keeping in touch with people close to me.  It's taken a while for me to realize the value of friendships and the time and effort it requires to nurture and allow the friendships to grow.  All I can do is learn from my past mistakes and become a better friend from them.

12/22/98