MARK MATHEWS

5 May 99

For the rest of the group, interestingly enough, on my first day at
University in Washington DC, they put everyone's name up on our dorm
room door, along with the last high school you attended. Since I had
gone on to Marist Bro's in Am. Samoa after my brief stint at SamCo,
they put American Samoa on my door. After a few variations including
'the Flying Hawaiian' and the 'Sleeping Samoan' (I won't go into how
those nicknames came about), I eventually became known around the
campus as 'The Samoan'. By my senior year, 75% of the people I knew
had no idea what my real name was. Even now at college reunions
everyone calls me 'Samoan'. I live in London now and work for the
Nasdaq Stock Market. I was talking to a colleague the other day about
high school and related to him how I got my hair chopped off at
assembly one morning at SamCo because it was too long (absolutely
hilarious when you think about it). I thought the palagi 'double
standard' would be in effect but no such luck. If I ever need a dose
of humility all I need to do is remember events like the above to
bring me right back down to earth.

Nick (formerly Andrew) Marleet sends his regards and promises to get
email sometime soon.

Take care,

Mark