"I like jokes. I like to eat, talk and sleep. Someday I want to be a politician, not a rotten one, though; or maybe to be a scientist. Right now, I want to travel; I like to own a car . . . but that may be later when I'm in college. In general, I like people. I don't have a particular philosophy in life, but I just try to be nice with everybody, just to get along well with others, you know."

    Simple and direct; somehow, you feel it comes right from the heart. Yes, that's how this guy talks. Fernando Barican, fondly called Jerry by friends, is the sort of person you come to like instantly from the first meeting. Though popular in his own right, Jerry is as humble as a "kitten" when it comes to dealing with others. He says he likes to talk, and talk he does! Even to a completer stranger, he talks with the same eloquence as if he's talking to an old acquaintance. And that's what makes him most likeable. One feels at ease easily in his company. Obviously, he is the gregarious type. And being outspoken, his friends need not be as outspoken as he is, but at least not the shy type. It's just that birds of the same feather flock together.

    You can't help notice a boy with these qualities especially when he towers over all the others, physically that is. Being endowed with a 5' 9'' frame plus an equally impressive breadth, Jerry makes an ideal big brod to every second year student.

    When one talks with a teenager, somehow the topic just drifts to that topic of topics among the young at heart: crushes. Oh, before that, Jerry mentioned something about his ideal girl. He said she must possess a good sense of humor, she must be game, a good sport, that is, and she must be interesting to talk with. And ordinary looks will do. Now do you want a hot tip? All you girls who in one way or another are interested (with a capital I) with this personality of ours? The tip is just this: Jerry revealed quite hesitantly that he has his eyes on a certain girl, a sor tof prospect, as we may call it. But then he would not even leak out her initials, not a bit of information about her. Why all the secrecy, no one knows but he. However, we are resolved to know her sooner or later. ( How about it, Jerry?)