Bridget Jones

Fall 2002

The Christina Lim Show

"Meet Cathy, who's lived most everywhere from Zanzibar to Barclay Square, but Patty's only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights, What a crazy pair!

But they're cousins, identical cousins all the way, one pair of matching bookends,

different as night and day.

Where Cathy adores a minuet, the Ballet Russes, and crepes suzette, our Patty loves to rock and roll, a hot dog makes her lose control, What a wild duet!

Still, they're cousins, identical cousins and you'll find, They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike, you can lose your mind, when cousins are two of a kind.≤

--Theme Song from ≥The Patty Duke Show≤

* * * *

Whatπs the best way to celebrate your twenty first birthday? For Christina Lim, itπs heading to Las Vegas in December with her friends. Being the youngest of her friends means that sheπs also the last one to turn 21. Christina says of her trip, ≥it should be lots of fun. I plan on losing some money.≤ She is taking this trip with a group of close friends, including her best friend Karen. Karen bought Christina the plane ticket to Las Vegas for her birthday. Christina and Karen are not only best friends, but also cousins.

* * * *

During my first interview with Christina, we were interrupted by her ringing cell phone. I told her to go ahead and answer it so I could have some time to look around her apartment. She had only been talking for a few seconds when I realized that the person she was talking to was not her mom or just a friend but someone who was very important in Christinaπs life. Christina had been very serious so far in our interview, and now hearing her end of the conversation I could tell that her whole attitude had changed.

≥No, your phone sucks.≤

≥Itπs because you live in the middle of nowhere≤

≥Oh my gosh! Are you serious?≤

≥Okay well, I canπt talk about it right now, Iπm in an interview≤

≥No, itπs not a formal interview, itπs for a paper≤

≥Okay, Iπll call you back later and I want to hear everything.≤

Christina turned to me and said, ≥Sorry, that was my cousin Karen.≤

* * * *

Christina and Karen have always been close, probably because they are so close in age. ≥We were always spending the night at each otherπs houses,≤ Christina says. ≥We lived pretty close, so we would walk back and forth between our houses all the time.≤

When they were younger they were expected to be the entertainment at family gatherings. They would wear costumes and then sing and dance to songs like ≥A Whole New World,≤ From Aladdin. The rest of the family would laugh and smile at the eight and ten year-old girls. Christina recalls these occasions as, ≥very embarrassing≤ and was happy to ≥pass down the humiliation≤ when she got older. Now Christina and Karen laugh as the younger children in the family perform for them.

Christina and Karen, have the same taste in music, clothes and food. They like to shop, go to clubs or just hang out. One of Christinaπs favorite things to do is work out. She is taking two FRAs this semester and she enjoys working out with Karen. Even though they have been close friends for many years, Christina says that she and Karen never fight. Christina really likes the idea that two people with different personalities get along as well as they do and enjoy so many of the same activities.

Christina is a Junior in college and is taking twenty hours this semester because she hopes to graduate early. She also works an on-campus job, tutors at the Gethsemani center every week, and is involved in Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity. This seems like a very tough schedule to maintain, but Christina says she ≥handles≤ it well because she is a ≥work-aholic.≤ She is a very disciplined student and good at getting things done. ≥When I have work to do, I do it. Itπs what Iπm here for. I spend a lot of my free time working on things for class.≤

With such a heavy course load she is always studying or working on projects and papers. She is considering going to law school after she graduates because itπs three more years of school, something she has discovered sheπs pretty good at. Law school is also something that sheπd ≥really like to do.≤

Her family is very supportive of whatever Christina does, and her mother has even offered to pay for law school if thatπs what Christina decides to do. Her family and friends in her hometown of Katy, Texas, are an important part of Christinaπs life because their love and support help her to be focused and determined. She really enjoys going back home to see all of her friends and family. ≥I will only go home though, if I can finish all my homework and studying for Monday and Tuesday before I leave. I donπt want to have to worry about anything other than enjoying myself when Iπm at home.≤

* * * *

As I look around Christinaπs McCombs apartment I notice that she doesnπt have an over abundance of ≥stuff≤ like I do in my apartment. I ask her, ≥Do you like living in McCombs?≤ ≥Yes, I love it, I especially love having my own room and bathroom.≤ As she notices me looking around the living room she quickly tells me, ≥all the stuff in here is my roommateπs, I donπt really have much stuff.≤ Her roommate wasnπt home, so I asked her how they got along. ≥We get along well, we are both very busy so we donπt actually see each other too much. We arenπt around each other enough to have anything to fight about.≤ As we move to her room and I begin looking around more, I notice that she was right about not having much stuff. On her walls there are two posters, a bulletin board, a calendar and some picture frames. She points out Karen to me in the pictures of her group of friends. Christina describes her style as ≥simple.≤ She told me, ≥I really like to keep things simple when Iπm at school. This isnπt my home, itπs my dorm, so I donπt decorate much.≤ This is a very important distinction for Christina, home and school are two very different places for her.

* * * *

As far as personalities are concerned, Christina feels that she and Karen are ≥completely different.≤ She describes Karen as ≥really outgoing, crazy, and fun.≤ She describes herself as ≥quiet, conservative and hardworking.≤ Christina says that she is more mature and responsible and that Karen is wild and crazy. Christina told me, ≥Iπm usually the one that takes care of her when she gets a little too out of control.≤ Christina feels that she and Karen ≥balance each other out.≤ This sense of balance is important to Christina in her hectic life, it ≥keeps her from going crazy.≤ Their personalities are different from each other in all the right ways so that they mesh well together.

Last semester, before Karen graduated from UT, she didnπt have class on Fridays. Christina says that every Thursday Karen would call her and beg her to come to Austin and spend the weekend with her. Karen knew that this would take lots of convincing since it would mean that Christina would miss her Friday classes, so she planned out the entire weekend to try and entice her. Christina says, ≥She would tell me we would go out and be able to sleep in and sheπd plan some fun activity like canoeing.≤ Karen would remind Christina that she was always complaining about being busy and not having time to do anything fun. Even with all this convincing, Christina says she only actually gave in and skipped her classes two times. She told me about one of the times she spent the weekend with Karen, ≥It was a blast, she really knows how to have fun.≤ Karen and Christina went to dinner, went to a club, slept in, made cookies and muffins, went shopping and canoeing.

Christina is a busy full time student in Georgetown, Texas, while Karen graduated from UT and now has a job in Houston. Some people might think that being separated would cause them to grow apart. This is not so, says Christina. ≥We are in constant contact.≤ They call each other regularly, email each other several times daily and see each other in person when they can. They used to have ≥secret screenames≤ that only they knew about. When they wanted to get online and talk to the other person without having to talk to other friends and family, they would sign on under their secret screename. Karen tells Christina everything about her life and looks to her for advice, Christina does the same thing to Karen, most of the time. ≥If I have a secret that I donπt want anyone else to know about, I usually wait a while to tell Karen. She usually has a pretty big mouth about things. She doesnπt mind when I keep my secrets, though. She knows how big her mouth can be.≤

When I asked Christina what made her relationship with Karen so special to her she told me that, ≥Karen is like a sister to me.≤ Christina says she is closer to Karen than to her sister because her sister is ten years older. They have never been able to connect the way that Karen and Christina have. ≥My relationship with Karen is the åsister relationshipπ that I didnπt get to have with my sister. Karen is the person in my life who I can count on to be there anytime I need her.≤

In a busy life filled with due dates and commitments that causes Christina to ≥live and die≤ by her planner, itπs nice to have a balancing element. This is why Christinaπs relationship with her cousin and best friend is an important part of her life.

* * * *

Authorπs Afterwords

When I started this assignment I had no idea where to go with it. After I met with Christina the first time, I came home and looked through my notes to see what stood out to me. The theme of Christinaπs friendship with Karen really struck me. From the stories about her, to the fact that she had called during our interview I got the impression that this was an important part of her life. The other thing that stood out to me was how disciplined and dedicated of a student Christina is. I was impressed with how many hours she is taking on top of working, volunteering and being in organizations. She seemed very organized and almost like she enjoyed her full schedule. In the rest of our interviews I asked her to go into detail about what her friendship with Karen was like, and about her life at school. I used these as the two main themes of my paper because I thought it created an accurate representation of how I saw Christina. I thought it was extremely difficult to piece together different elements of someoneπs life into a theme or story. Combining these two elements that show two very important sides of her life was the best way I could see to represent what I had learned about Christina. In relationship to my other two articles I have written for this class, this is the one I feel the best about. I feel that in this article I had the opportunity to write a profile and it made me feel like a real journalist. I thought that this piece was better journalism than my personal experience narrative and I had much more fun with it than I did with my comprehensive non-fiction narrative.