Josh Shepherd

It seemed that now things were getting interesting. Upon arriving at the Olin building, I found that Camilia had beaten me there and was already relaxing on the couches provided by the university. Our first interview had been a confusing exchange, in which I found out little more than some standard facts about the life of this classmate who I had never known. I was greatly unprepared to conduct our first interview and felt that this, the second interview, would be drastically different. I thought about some specifics I would like to ask her and some of the stories surrounding some of the events her life. I was unprepared for the stories she was waiting to tell me. Unprepared to find the pieces fit together so well; it made so much sense.

* * *

Southwestern University is located in the small, yet ever-growing city of Georgetown. Georgetown, located in central Texas, is less than a half-hour drive north of Austin. Camilia Van Camp has been in close proximity to Georgetown for as long as she can remember.

Born in Oatmeal, a small town close to Austin, Camilia moved to Liberty Hill when she was a year and a half old. Liberty Hill, a mere fifteen miles from Georgetown, has been home to Camilia ever since. The short distance from home has allowed Camilia to work at the Georgetown HEB since she was sixteen. This was her life, this was the area where she lived, and college was quickly approaching. At a time when most young adults are ready to leave "the nest," Camilia was not interested in Southwestern.

Her father, however, was interested in Southwestern. The small campus and its quickly growing reputation make Southwestern a parents’ favorite, especially if it’s close to home. Despite her father’s wishes, Camilia simply told him she had no desire to attend Southwestern.

This would be true until another man changed her mind. Camilia realized that Southwestern provided a close proximity to home, and to the serious boyfriend who was there. Camilia decided to apply to Southwestern in order to stay close to the guy in her life, not because she was giving in to her father’s requests. After receiving acceptance to the University, Camilia said that she decided to attend because she was just "too lazy" to apply anywhere else. Camilia and her boyfriend broke up her senior year of high school. She decided to still attend Southwestern, a decision that pleased her father.

* * *

The initial interview had been awkward. I was unprepared and knew little to ask other than the basic information. I found out that her dad was a sculptor and that she had recently returned from a semester in London. The semester was her second time in London. She loves the city and hopes to return again for graduate school. As the interview came to a close, I asked her about the individual I thought was her current boyfriend. This was the guy I always seemed to see her with our freshman year, seemingly dating forever. She replied that they broke up, yet still remained close. She doesn’t see Jon as much as she would like anymore; she says pot now controls most of his time.

I was late to the second interview, and found that Camilia had beaten me there and was already relaxing on the couches provided by the university. I now thought I was prepared to conduct the interview. I wanted to specifically question her about her tattoo, and clarify some things about London. She instigated the verbal exchange, however, stating that she had thought of some stories to tell. I was relieved that my job was now a little easier. Camilia said that she had two stories: a story about a drunken night freshman year, and a story about when she was engaged. It seemed that now things were getting interesting. I immediately asked her about the engagement.

* * *

She met Daniel through a mutual friend who was an artist like her father, and a studio art major at the University of Texas. Daniel, who was also a studio art major, had met her friend in some of the classes. The two hit it off and started dating the summer after Camilia’s freshman year. They dated for months, breaking up somewhere near November of the following school year. After spending the year apart, the two decided to try it again towards the end of her sophomore year.

The following June or early July, Daniel proposed to Camilia. Camilia, caught by the moment, agreed, and the two were set to be married. Camilia used the following semester to study in London, through a program with the university. The couple stayed together for "two or three" months while she was in London, yet the relationship soon crumbled.

Camilia says that she had doubts about the engagement before ever leaving for London. It upset her when Daniel would head for the bar to get drunk every time the couple had an argument. Daniel used alcohol to manage his anger and his reason for drinking upset Camilia. The break-up was finalized when the distance between the couple finally took its toll. When she returned from London, she also returned the ring. She rarely sees Daniel now.

* * *

After the story I fell back on asking her about her tattoo. The rose tattoo on her right shoulder blade had caught my attention upon leaving the first interview. She stated that Rose was her middle name and that she and her younger sister had gotten tattoos in London. The two had planned to get tattoos when her sister visited her from home. Upon asking what her parents thought about the new art, she stated that neither of them were too pleased when they found out, although they were "hippies." I thought the hippie explanation interesting, yet my mind jumped elsewhere.

I again started thinking about London and so I asked about her experience overseas and about her current boyfriend, another student from Southwestern who had also gone to London. She had met him while studying abroad and the two started dating towards the end of their semester. She told me that Josh had nothing to do with her and Daniel’s separation and that they hadn’t even started dating until well after the split.

I know of Josh through his work. A play he wrote was directed by a good friend of mine and performed at our fraternity house. It was a depressing play about alcohol and its detrimental effects on a group of young friends. I have met Josh once and enjoyed the short but pleasant conversation we had. My friend assures me, however, that Josh’s plays are usually depressing and that he sometimes himself would joke about being alcoholic. I struggled to place Josh and the playwright together as the same individual.

I then questioned about her second story, the drunken night freshman year.

* * *

It was late in the first semester of Camilia’s freshman year. With her boyfriend out of town, she went with some of his friends to a fraternity party on campus. The group attended the party for a couple of hours, socializing and drinking beer. When the group left, they decided to go back to her boyfriend’s room with his roommate and take some shots of Bacardi 151 proof. Camilia would later find she was very drunk.

After smoking only a couple drags off her cigarette, Camilia realized that the combination of nicotine and alcohol was making her feel sick. She ran to the men’s restroom on the first floor, threw up, and was then helped up stairs to her boyfriend’s bed. She passed out there in bed, a trash can nearby, for the entire night. Although seeing she was in no shape to walk home, the sophomore resident advisor still wrote up Camilia for disobeying the rules for visiting hours.

* * *

It seemed as if our conversation always turned to the men in Camilia’s life. It seemed there was something about the guys she had dated that drew me to question more. Guys, even those she wasn’t romantically involved with, seemed to find their way into the stories. Something was interesting about all of the guys in her seemingly innocent stories. I used the interview to ask about her explanation of her parents as hippies. She explained how her mom never wore a bra until Camilia was in the 5^TH or 6^TH grade. She talked about how she was "the last" girl in her school to start shaving her legs because her mother didn’t and felt Camilia shouldn’t either. She went on to explain how she and her sisters were born at home and not in a hospital.

It was in her explanation of her father that I realized the pattern regarding the men in her life. Each man had similarities to the others that I had never seen; I now found all of them in her father.

* * *

Camilia’s father is an artist. He is an artist by career, not as a hobby or a part time job. As an artist he derives his income from his work. Camilia’s father is a sculptor who works in his own studio. He works with limestone to create images depicting the real as well as the abstract. Camilia’s father, like any true hippie, smoked pot.

He stopped smoking pot when Camilia was ten. He stopped everything. Her father had realized that he was an alcoholic and committed himself to the alcoholics anonymous program. The program’s support meetings have helped him deal with his alcoholism and after eleven years he is still substance-free.

* * *

Upon hearing about her father’s struggles with alcohol, I questioned if it scared her to participate in activities such as that night her freshman year. She said that initially she told herself she would never touch alcohol, or drugs for that matter. She realizes now, however, that she is not scared about alcohol and its effects on her; she’s comfortable with it. Her worry now is for others - those guys she surrounds herself with - and alcohol’s effects on them.

This is when it dawned on me. It seemed as if I was figuring out the true Camilia. She is an individual who cares for others, interested in the well being of those close to her. Her father has triumphed over his addiction and no longer needs this worry from Camilia. The other men in Camilia’s life have not yet triumphed, Camilia still worries for them. It seems she looks for those who still need worry.

I interviewed Camilia twice in the Olin building at Southwestern University. We sat on the couches on the first floor, facing each other, while I tried to write as much as possible about the answers to my questions. The story about Jon came "after" the first interview as we both walked to our cars in the parking lot. I struggled with the information I had gathered when it came time to actually think about the article. I finally found what I thought to be a theme in her life and ran with it, hoping the whole time not to offend her. It’s a hard thing to analyze a person’s life in writing, especially when you are a student, not a professional. I feel this piece represents my writing the fullest. It seems anyone can write about a story in their own life, using it to illustrate their personality. It takes significantly more effort to try to the same with someone you hardly know. I feel this piece represents the latter, and I am proud of how it turned out.