Tea Party 22 (Q&A: How the JAAM Fam Met)

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Welcome back to another Tea Party! The JAAM fam decided to take a stroll down memory lane and talk about how we all met. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and join us for a time of reminiscence!

How Pineapple met Raspberry:

I met Raspberry back when we were still college students. We were actually in a poetry critique workshop class together. I feel like for the first half of the semester we didn’t really talk to each other, but I sat close to her in the back of the class. I think that, maybe, aside from the professor, we were the only Asians in the class lol. Anyway I actually did notice her watching kpop videos before I ever said anything to her and never built up the courage to say anything ha ha. She was someone I wanted to be close to but was a bit intimidated by.

Coincidentally, SHE started talking to ME when I mentioned kpop when a guy was trying to pick me up. The guy did not last very long at all, but I’m VERY glad that it spurred on this lasting friendship between Raspberry and I. I even signed up for a class so that we could see each other the following semester. She’s really the first close friend that I made in college, and one of the very few lasting ones.

Pineapple’s Special Memories:

I remember one time, Raspberry wore a really soft sweater to class. I’d wanted to touch it the whole time we were sitting in our senior seminar, and I finally gave in as we were leaving. She said something along the lines of, “we’re close enough now” or “you’re stuck with me now.” Anyway, I basically swooned. My heart skipped a beat.

Also in our senior seminar, like. Halfway through the semester, Raspberry realized there was a photo of our professor on the back of the book because he wrote it. She like almost gasped and pointed to it and idk how to explain it, but I thought it was funny that she didn’t realize sooner ha ha.

Why do I also feel like one time we went to a study room in the library to watch a kpop concert dvd? I feel like that’s something we did ha ha

A very memorable time with Apple for me was going back to the college campus after I had graduated so that I could watch Apple’s poetry reading for her class. I took a video and sent it to Raspberry later, since Raspberry couldn’t make it.

We’ve done a lot of things and been to lots of places, but for some reason something I can’t stop thinking of is when we watched Train to Busan together ha ha. I couldn’t stop crying and she hugged me. 

How Apple met Pineapple:

Okay, so Raspberry was in this poetry class in college, and she was like, “Hey, do you wanna come to my reading?” and I was like, “YES!” in all caps. (She was fantastic, by the way.) She also mentioned that she had a friend in the class. So I got there, I met this friend, she’s majorly talented, soft spoken but in a confident way, great taste in music, wearing the cutest outfit ever, and now I needed her to also be my friend. So, I wrapped up my associate’s degree and transferred to their university. A school with Pineapple and Raspberry was a school I obviously needed to be attending. After that, I just “casually” ran into her in the hallway with Raspberry and somehow bamboozled her into being stuck with me for life.

Apple’s Special Memories:

There was this one time I went to visit Raspberry, and she had to go to work. For, like, hours. Which was practically forever. And I was really going to miss her. So I might have… tackled her to the floor… and wrapped her in a yoga mat… and hidden her shoes… Luckily, Raspberry is really good at talking me out of being ridiculous and was able to make it to work.

Pineapple and I road-tripped to the beach together! It was such a relaxing day, and we ate yummy food and stopped by the bookstore. While we were at the beach, I was reading a book and Pineapple came up to me and gave me the most precious little seashell. The shell brings back such good memories that I keep it on the shelf right next to me so I can always see it. (I’m literally looking at it right now!)

How Raspberry met Apple:

I know it’s cliché but it’s like so true when I say I can’t really remember life before Apple! We actually kinda met in high school my freshman year, but we didn’t really talk until my sophomore year. Fun story, we were in Biology with 2 of our other friends. I met one in that class and we had an enemies to friends arc, and Apple met our other friend and had a “does this person not like me” to friends arc. Then the 4 of us became a group the next year. Apple and I shared a Creative Writing class, which is when we really started talking. I was so obsessed with her writing and tried to play it cool, but I was definitely screaming “be my best friend!” internally (hopefully not externally!). We also both were struggling with chronic migraines a lot and missed a bunch of school. We called ourselves telepathy twins because we share a brain cell and usually have the same thoughts!! 

Raspberry’s Special Memories:

Oh my gosh, I could literally write a book about all the great memories I have with Pineapple and Apple. They are the best fam, and I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have them in my life. 

One of my first memories of Pineapple is when we had poetry class together. I remember sitting near her and wanting to be her friend (but not come off as a creeper, so it was a hard time for me LOL). She had this poem where I remember she was talking about working late and coming home to leftovers and someone left a plate for her. There was one line where she said something along the lines of “I appreciate it but I wish they remembered that I don’t like peas.” And that line. Like we weren’t friends officially (we were in my mind already) but I was ready to THROW DOWN for her! Thank god I didn’t scare her away early hahaha but now it’s too late. She’s stuck with me forever.

I could talk about soooooo many memories with Apple, but some of my favorite memories would be when we were writing fanfic together (and we never finished that project hahaha sorry to the 3 people who were reading it). We’d meet up at the Barnes and Noble bookstore and set up the laptop on that little stage area in the Young Readers section. I’d get a drink and pretzel from the Starbucks, and we’d “work on writing,” which mostly turned into one or both of us losing focus and talking about random stuff. It was definitely one of the highlights of my entire teenage experience!