People In My Life

    Family

     Here are two of my favorite women in the world. Of course in the middle is Lisa Ling from ABC's "The View" and formerly of my favorite school news program "Channel One".  Not only is she beautiful, intelligent, and articulate, but she's very kind. In fact, she didn't seem to mind that I acted like a little boy with a crush when I met her. I think actually she thought it was cute. On the right is my older sister Laura. She's a graduate of Duke University and probably one of the smartest folks that's ever lived (although she claims that she's not). Even though sometimes she is introverted and shy, she can and will go toe-to-toe in an argument with ANYBODY on any subject and usually win. It's pretty impressive. I admire her. She's about to move to Washington D.C. and work for North Carolina 12th District Congressman Mel Watt.
     Laura and I have a unique relationship. If you ever are around us we argue a lot, just like brothers and sister so close in age are supposed to, but we seldom argue about brother and sister stuff. We argue about world affairs, politics, church issues, etc. But despite the fact that we argue, we probably see eye-to-eye on everything important. She's my closest political ally, partly because we both justify our political beliefs with our Christianity. Our ambitions are similar in that we both want to go into some sort of liberal political advocacy later on in life. She's the Bobby Kennedy to my JFK in that I've got the personality and the charisma and she's got the brains and the patience. I've always joked with her and said that if I ever run for anything she's going to be my right-hand woman. I think that that would be a team to be reckoned with!

     As for the rest of my family, well, they're definately my inspiration. No doubt, when you grow up in a household like mine, see the things I've seen and experience the things I've experienced all framed by one parent who's a Minister and another parent who's a teacher (who form a parental team you wouldn't believe), you act a certain way and think a certain way. That way is who I am and who my sister is. We're happy with who we are and with the gifts we have and the contributions we've made and will make, and we all owe it to our parents and family. That's about as concise an explanation as I can provide.

Carolina Folks

This a picture taken of me and my three best friends from my first two years at school. From left to right: Kate Tucker, Jenny "Shorty" Crow, Jen Swierz, and myself. I wish I had some closer men friends at school, but the female/male ratio at Carolina is 3/1, so I guess it was natural to have three girls as my best friends. All three of these women are great friends and great fun to be around. They'll be living in another dorm next year, so I'm not sure exactly how our relationship will progress. I am extremely lucky, though,  to have these three women in my life in any capacity. Click on the pic to check out Kate's page!
 
 
 
 
 

Beth Koontz

My ex-girlfriend (from highschool) who I now consider to be possibly my best friend. She's the only person who I feel I have a close personal partnership with. Beth and I have a unique relationship. Our dating period and mutual breakup in high school was probably the key brick in building the relationship we have now. See, we know each other as well as boyfriends/girlfriends do, but since we're not boyfriend/girlfriend, we don't feel the pressure to be like each other, to match each other. It was that pressure to match that split us in the first place, see, cause we live totally different lifestyles. Our friendship now is stronger than our relationship was then because we have only positive things in our relationship like trust and appreciation for the role the other plays in our lives. We don't have the leariness and frustration we had back in the day. I hope that made sense. Anyway, Beth is cute, fun, and wonderful. I love her very much and I am very happy she's in my life.

 

Ginny Jordan

Ginny is an old friend of mine. Our parents were friends back in the day so we've known each other since we were rug rats. We didn't see each other much back then, maybe once a year when our parents got together, but we had fun when we did. I was also fortunate enough to have her accompany me to my senior prom in Lexington.  Although we've both been at Carolina for two whole years, it wasn't until last year, when we ended up in the same dorm, that I realized our compatibility and revitalized our old friendship. I'm glad I've been able to become close with her again. She's got wonderful qualities that I admire, appreciate, and find very attractive.
 
 
 
 
 
 

UCC-DSF

Stands for United Church of Christ-Disciples Student Fellowship, my youth group at school. We're a small, but close and committed bunch of young men and women who meets occasionally to fellowship and share our experiences in the context of a Christian environment, more specifically the United Church of Chapel Hill. Each person in the group (including our leaders Heather, Carol, and Brian) is young, energetic, and ambitious.
 
 

L-Town Folks

This is my boy Mark Sink. He's a SeaHawk from UNC in Wilmington. He was probably my first friend when I moved to Lboogie back many moons ago. My boy could be the producer of every show on VH1 because he is a music encyclopedia. He's a good guy with a good heart. This is a funny ass photo too.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Without these two fellows below, my page (however boring and plain it may be) would not exist! Thanks fellas! They both go to NC State so they've got mad computer skills (very few of which they have taught to me). Already these suckers have convinced some of the wealthy folks in Lexington to invest in a small computer business that they've started in Raleigh. How do I feel? JEALOUS DAMMIT! I'd have been more than happy to be a silent partner if I could have earned some money, but NNNNNOOOOO, my liberal arts education isn't good enough to help out in the computer biz. Screw you too fellas! :) Click on the pics to check out their pages.
 

On the left is Forrest "My most effective move in basketball is sticking my butt in your crotch and tossing the ball over the backboard all the while looking exactly like former NC State scrub Jeremy Hyatt" Samuels. And on the right is Jared "I understand innuendo" "I'm going to hate Wilson forever for putting a picture of me stroking a monkey named 'Spanky' on his page" "I don't have the time to give Wilson the address to any of my websites that I made after I finished the eleventh grade" Hodak. Click on their pics to visit one of their sites.

Those aren't really these guys nicknames, I just made these up! They do hold true however. Of course these guys have about a dozen more nicknames apiece, but I won't go into those at the moment. I think if I brought those up they would surely bring up the nickname they gave me long ago that I've spent the last four years trying to forget. Let's just put it this way. In the vain of the long nicknames I've written here, my name would be Wilson "Doesn't ever hang out with us when we do fun things that we may take pictures of to put on our websites" Hooper.
 
 

On the left is Julie Harper, my old friend from Lexington. She lives in Greensboro and goes to UNCG.  Even though at the moment she's not in my immediate group of friends, I want to put her on my page because she is extremely kind and super cute. On the right is Emily Kepley who is another one of my old friends from Lexington. She is a Western Carolina University Catamount. Emily, Mark Sink, and myself used to be a pretty tight posse called "The Magic Squad". Oh! those good old middle school days. Anyway, she's very, um, 'special' (and when I say that I mean eccentric), and she's got a good heart. I love her a lot.
 
 

The picture on the top of the page is my immediate family. From left to right: my dad Rev. F. Michael Hooper, my aunt Beverly Broyles, my sister Laura Hooper holding our dog Hershey, myself, and my mom Bonita Hooper. Seated is my grandmother Jean Broyles.