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My encounter with Kal Penn
By SIstine Gurrey
UF / St. Thomas Aquinas grad
The story kind of goes like this...
Kal Penn visited the University of Florida back in September to speak to students about Obama. I only knew about that because my roommate Tiffany LOVES him. I couldn't go that day. On Tuesday, while I was in class, I get a text message from a friend saying that they ran into "Kumar" (a character he's famous for playing) and told him he was voting for Mccain. I shrugged it off like it was nothing. When I got out of class my friend Dani turns to me and says "Oh look who it is," and before I knew it, I was standing 5 ft away from Kal Penn. I immediately regretted not having kept my camera in my bag because I wanted to take a picture for Tiffany. I hectically pulled out my phone and texted Tiffany that Kal Penn was standing right next to me. Dani and I stood there around him kind of star-struck for about 5 minutes and then we decided to walk away to go eat lunch. Five minutes later, I'm about to cross the street to go to the dining hall when I hear "Hey, did you guys vote yet?" I turned around and there is Kal with his possy of Obama shirt-wearing supporters. I, again star-struck, just smiled. Dani answered that she couldn't vote and he told her to do America a favor and become a "Super Seventeen," which is someone who can't vote because they are too young, yet they still get involved in the election by volunteering to get people out to vote. All of the sudden I remembered that I had texted Tiffany. I checked my phone and saw that she had called. In a heartbeat, without thinking of my actions, I took out my phone and called Tiffany. I told her to wait a second when she picked up and then I walked over to Kal and tapped him on the arm. "Excuse me, could you convince my friend to vote for Obama?"
"Sure, what's her dilemma? Is she undecided?"
"Yes," I lied. She's voting for Mccain.
"Where is she?"
"She's on the phone." I passed him the phone.
For the next five minutes, I listened to Kal Penn talk about health care to my roommate on MY phone. What was even more exhilarating is that for those five minutes, I had become one of his possy members. I was walking with an actor, his right hand Obama-mate, a photographer, and his personal assistant. The best part was that we were walking to the dining hall. At the end of those five minutes, I heard my roommate on the other end of the line saying, "Ok, thanks. Can I talk to my roommate now, please," so he passed the phone back to me.
I guess as another act of kindness to my roommate who was missing this encounter, I quickly asked Kal to give me his autograph for Tiffany because she was a huge fan. I looked for a pen quickly, but his assistant was quicker. He wrote "Tiffany, (scribbles)." As he handed me back the paper, the photographer took a picture, and that is the picture that was published in the Independent Florida Alligator the next day.
Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to engage in some political conversation, with him. I felt like he was too pressed for time. Plus, I can't vote. There are other people who needed to be convinced to vote and make up their minds about who to choose. He did however, make me want to get involved in the political campaign next time around. Even though I can't vote, he said that I could still help make history by helping others to get out there and vote. Even though voting here is only for Americans, I think the election process includes everyone, citizens and non citizens.
read the article and see a picture of Sistine getting her autograph:
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/11/05/news/campus/081104_penn.txt
UF / St. Thomas Aquinas grad
The story kind of goes like this...
Kal Penn visited the University of Florida back in September to speak to students about Obama. I only knew about that because my roommate Tiffany LOVES him. I couldn't go that day. On Tuesday, while I was in class, I get a text message from a friend saying that they ran into "Kumar" (a character he's famous for playing) and told him he was voting for Mccain. I shrugged it off like it was nothing. When I got out of class my friend Dani turns to me and says "Oh look who it is," and before I knew it, I was standing 5 ft away from Kal Penn. I immediately regretted not having kept my camera in my bag because I wanted to take a picture for Tiffany. I hectically pulled out my phone and texted Tiffany that Kal Penn was standing right next to me. Dani and I stood there around him kind of star-struck for about 5 minutes and then we decided to walk away to go eat lunch. Five minutes later, I'm about to cross the street to go to the dining hall when I hear "Hey, did you guys vote yet?" I turned around and there is Kal with his possy of Obama shirt-wearing supporters. I, again star-struck, just smiled. Dani answered that she couldn't vote and he told her to do America a favor and become a "Super Seventeen," which is someone who can't vote because they are too young, yet they still get involved in the election by volunteering to get people out to vote. All of the sudden I remembered that I had texted Tiffany. I checked my phone and saw that she had called. In a heartbeat, without thinking of my actions, I took out my phone and called Tiffany. I told her to wait a second when she picked up and then I walked over to Kal and tapped him on the arm. "Excuse me, could you convince my friend to vote for Obama?"
"Sure, what's her dilemma? Is she undecided?"
"Yes," I lied. She's voting for Mccain.
"Where is she?"
"She's on the phone." I passed him the phone.
For the next five minutes, I listened to Kal Penn talk about health care to my roommate on MY phone. What was even more exhilarating is that for those five minutes, I had become one of his possy members. I was walking with an actor, his right hand Obama-mate, a photographer, and his personal assistant. The best part was that we were walking to the dining hall. At the end of those five minutes, I heard my roommate on the other end of the line saying, "Ok, thanks. Can I talk to my roommate now, please," so he passed the phone back to me.
I guess as another act of kindness to my roommate who was missing this encounter, I quickly asked Kal to give me his autograph for Tiffany because she was a huge fan. I looked for a pen quickly, but his assistant was quicker. He wrote "Tiffany, (scribbles)." As he handed me back the paper, the photographer took a picture, and that is the picture that was published in the Independent Florida Alligator the next day.
Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to engage in some political conversation, with him. I felt like he was too pressed for time. Plus, I can't vote. There are other people who needed to be convinced to vote and make up their minds about who to choose. He did however, make me want to get involved in the political campaign next time around. Even though I can't vote, he said that I could still help make history by helping others to get out there and vote. Even though voting here is only for Americans, I think the election process includes everyone, citizens and non citizens.
read the article and see a picture of Sistine getting her autograph:
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/11/05/news/campus/081104_penn.txt
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she told him her friend was voting mccain just so he would talk to her friend.