Meet Macario! Macario was born in Saudi Arabia to Filipino parents who worked in the oil business. Almost immediately after his birth he was sent to live with his half-blind and staunchly Catholic Grandmother who was having a mental breakdown (involving some bizarre religious hallucinations of various Catholic saints) and needed something positive to focus on. She cared for him as a son until he was 5 years old, at which point his real parents came back to get him. He claims it took several years to feel any connection to his birth mother because his earliest memories of a mother-figure were associated with his grandmother. Back in Saudi Arabia he went to school and learned to write and speak in Arabic, as well as English. During Desert Storm his parents sent him and his two other siblings back to the Philippines for a while to live with relatives again –because they felt it was too dangerous for them in the middle east. During phone calls home Macario recalls hearing bombs and explosions in the background. Long-time church members, his parents eventually decided to make a move to the United States (where he finished up High School), and Macario is now attending BYU and is in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen.

Now meet AJ. Born in Rwanda, AJ says he ended up in Utah because he was “kidnapped by the Mormons” many years ago. His whole immediate family now resides within the sate, although AJ himself is somewhat of a nomad. He saved up money when he was younger for a college education, but at the age of 16 his father left and he decided to spend all of his savings tracking him down. He ran away from home but never succeeded in finding his dad. Instead he discovered less than a year later that his father got sick and died of cancer soon after he left his family. In his father’s last will he purportedly left AJ several things, including a plot of land back in Rwanda. Now, AJ continues his free, on-the-road lifestyle. He plays shows in an alternative/indie band and works in diners and cafes to earn some cash and then spends it all in traveling the world. In Europe he was officially adopted into a band of gypsies and he wears a bracelet bearing their family symbol.

Now it is your job to guess. Who is fact, and who is fiction?

In an attempt to broaden the scope of this project and encourage the participation of those not directly involved, I would like to start a new category called “Fact or Fiction?”. The idea is simple: present, in some meaningful form, two characters or anecdotes, one real and one fictitious. It is then up to the readers to guess which, in fact, exists in our reality. The goal is for the writer to outsmart the readers, hopefully demonstrating how real live people and events are often stranger than fiction.

Enter, Mercedes. She is a 21-year-old astronomical physics major here at the U. She doesn’t wear makeup, and can be seen wearing plaid shirts and funky Eskimo-style hats. Her father named her after his favorite kind of car as he did her four siblings Lexus, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Buick. She aspires to be the first woman on the moon. Her views on kissing? “That’s gross!”

Now, meet Brynja, a 24-year-old business major. He hails from Iceland but has lived in America for the past 10 years. He speaks fluent Icelandic as well as English with just enough accent to give a mysterious quality to his soft-spoken nature. He has worked on a fishing boat in Alaska every summer since he was eighteen where he maintains a long-distance relationship with a Muslim tour guide. His thoughts on Sigur Ros? “I’m sorry, I don’t know what that is.”