Time with family rekindles youth

By Maryann Dakkak

There's an art that we learn in high school that most of us lose when we reach these "wise old" college years: prank calling. And this weekend, I took a trip home and relived some of my youth through my younger siblings.

I took my best friend from Santa Clara with me. To be non-incriminating we'll call her Jelena and say that she's a 6-foot-3-inch female. Saturday night rolled around and so did my high school friend who we'll call Jay.

As we sat at my house with nothing to do, the phone rang. My brother who was awaiting a call went to get the phone but was deftly intercepted by Jay. With phone in hand, Jay started questioning and harassing my brother's friends. (Not that harassing people is good - only when it is your brother's 14 year-old buddies who are looking for a ride and you don't want to drive them anywhere.)

So for the next hour, Jelena spoke to them in Spanish, Jay was a tough guy and I bickered with bunches of my brothers friends. For some reason, the kids never got the point and continued calling. They of course thought there was a huge college party at our house and wanted to come over. They have never been so jealous of my brother. So what was first embarrassing for him became a huge popularity boost.

By the end of the hour, we were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. (Which was definitely in huge part due to playing Dance-Dance Revolution all morning.)

Which brings us to that fantastic game. Now, I am a very strong non-believer in video games or anything that requires a screen. But when I woke up to find my parents playing, I thought, something must be up with this. So Jelena and I spent three hours competing with my siblings and parents in a crazy tournament of Dance-Dance Revolution. And although the oldest sibling, I accepted my great loss (hey, I was new at the game), and ceded to my younger sister. I still hold my opinion of video games, but to every rule there is an exception.

So next time you go home, make sure to get some embarrassing moments in for your younger siblings. If you don't have younger siblings, maybe embarrass yourself just a bit. Home's definitely not as much fun without them (at least for me).

Next weekend, it will be my 21st birthday. I'm off with my best friends and family to Disneyland. If I'm lucky, they'll bring the Dance-Dance Revolution game. Plus I have my cell phone, so watch out.