About Valerie

My name is Rebecca. I started college at Pepperdine in the fall of 2012. Valerie is one of my best friends at Pepperdine. She is really sweet, kind and warm. I am an international student and I am not a native English speaker. On the very first week of college, which was almost two years ago, Valerie patiently listened to my monologues (spoken in English that did not make sense) about my homesickness. She gave me advice and cheered me up. We lived in the same suite, so we met each other quite early on. During our sophomore year, I enrolled into an intro to philosophy class. The readings were so hard that I could not figure out which words were verbs and which are objects. Valerie helped me with the readings whenever I needed her. She always put helping me before doing her own work. She not only explained the dense paragraphs to me, but also wanted to make sure that I understood why those verbs and objects work in that way. Gradually, due to her help, I got the ability to analyze hard sentences, so I would not need to bother her that much anymore. We also discussed the contents of the paragraphs, such as ethics, the existence of God and what make things right or wrong. Last semester, I wrote a bunch of transfer application essays (I will transfer to another college). Also, Valerie helped me a lot. She told me: "I will miss you, but I will support you and help you, no matter where you want to go." She checked all my grammar, my expressions and spent hours with me just to decide which word is the best word to use in the particular context. I am still feeling sorry because she did a lot for me, but there is almost nothing I can do for her. I am so glad that I can write this for her.