University of Southern California - El Rodeo Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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friend (frend) n. (ME. freond) 1. a person whom one knows well and is fond of 2. an ally, supporter, or sym- pathizer. Webster ' s New World Dictionary leaves little doubt as to who may or may not be your friend. ( ' Are You My Friend? A Brief Questionnaire ' ) Ac- cording to that source, it ' s all very simple, straightforward, and pre- cise. But mere dictionary definitions alone cannot convey the essence of friendship. So we turn to our trusty thesaurus for further assistance and find: acquaintance crony well-wisher confidant alter ego companion playmate schoolmate clique cohort Now we focus on a more vivid pic- ture-a friend can be any or all or a combination of these. Like your best friend from kindergarten. The guy you used to t.p. the neighborhood with. The brainy girl who used to help you write book reports. Mrs. McWilliams, your seventh grade teacher who forced you to write a paper a week - which improved your writing so drastically, you edited the Photo by Alexis Ignatieff school paper the next semester. Re- member them? Here at USC friendships blossom like dandelions in the backyard. Their sturdy roots eventually tunnel through the blackest, rockiest, least hospitable earth. Even the heftiest gardener couldn ' t uproot them. The stem groms straight and steady be- yond the neighboring grass into the clear daylight past the shadows. The golden flower bursts with an incan- descent radiance that glows even af- ter the sun has set, or when ominous clouds weigh down the sky. And where does this nearly mystical bond develop? At a school of ap- proximately 30,000 UNIQUE individ- uals-ANYWHERE!!! In the library, in the lab. After class, after hours. On the field, on the sunroof. Along the Row, alongside you at dinner. Eating a midnight snack, working it off at aerobics. Writing on an un- fathomable Thematic Option topic, reading the undecipherable Des- cartes. Learning to march, running late to class. Playing in the band, spectating at a football game. Ahh! A final point in the hollistic definition of friendship. WHO are those respectable, distinguished looking people dotting our campus lawns with cardinal and gold on pre- game Saturdays? ALUMNI - the ulti- mate in Trojans. What draws them back week after week to cheer on the sometimes cheerless team? Why travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to homecoming? Why wear shirts portraying scenic shots of the USC campus that to anyone else would appear laughable? WHY???? Because their friends do it. And their friends graduated from USC too. The friendships they formed during their long ago and far away years here ENDURE. Some friend- ships are older than you, the cur- rently enrolled student. That ' s the spirit of Trojan friendship. by Eleanor Hoppe Opening 17

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Photoessay by Greeks and Organizations Editor, Eleanor Hoppe Photos by Tom Yi Photo by Florence Guer 16 Opening

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