?Ryan Daniels | Making my greasy mark

When I graduate at the end of this year, I’ve been promised my own sandwich printed on the Bui’s food truck menu.

Working title: “The Number Ten,” since the menu’s options number only nine.

My off-the-menu creation began as a pathetic attempt to reincarnate the classic bacon, egg and cheese sandwich into something healthy.

Throughout months of refinement, Mrs. Bui — the woman behind the Penn-staple operation — and I developed a basic combination of egg whites, bacon, cheese and spinach on a wheat roll. Most of the people who I’ve forced the sandwich on have claimed satisfaction, even if they haven’t repeated the order.

But all of them have sarcastically commented on my “finding a place at Penn” and “leaving a great mark.” (Some devout foodies can’t locate words beneath their jealousy.)

I often feel too dignified (or hungry) to pay the ridicule much thought, but recently I’ve decided to take their comments as praise, not jest.

Their suggestions are that the effort this required must have detracted from other more serious accomplishments, but these two pieces of praise are perhaps the most important objectives of any Penn student.

When I visited Penn during Preview Days, I was reminded by a tour guide about the “incredible opportunities lying right ahead.” In four elusive years, she challenged, what impact would we have on the University?

I remember my imagination racing to answer this question on the ride back home. Behind wide eyes, my mind could only offer the most grandiose plots. Would it be a building — or buildings — carrying my name? Perhaps stones on Locust Walk bearing my quotations?

More realistically, I resolved to quickly find my circles at Penn, through student organizations — both academic and non — and then in time maybe assume leadership positions.

Upon returning to the University as a freshman a few months later, Amy Gutmann took time at Convocation to reiterate what my tour guide had said. Surely last night, the Class of 2017 was asked how they’d affect their new home.

How exactly to pursue these ambitions, however, can become convoluted. Under veils of intimidation and hesitation, accomplishments seem elusive and intangible.

There are many fearless students who will have no problem plunging into life at Penn, hitting the ground running. And as impressive as they are, they can in turn make the students like me feel even less secure about how to join in and fulfill an ambition.

But, for the rest of us, you don’t need to know what your impacts will look like. My mark, an inadvertent product of eating to forget my freshman anxieties, is a testament to that.

Nor do you need to quickly decide what your homes will be for the next four years. Mine unwittingly became a food truck.

I tend to joke that Mrs. Bui has become a maternal figure to me over the last three years. Recently, in lieu of “Number 10,” my tin-foil sandwich wrappers have been labeled with a heart.

At the very least, my experience at Bui’s has taught me this: persistence, or at least consistence, will pay off. This is true when trying to carve out a pocket of familiarity and especially true when wanting to make a change at a place as large and storied as Penn.

It’s also taught me that finding your place at Penn and leaving a mark are gradual; they take time and patience. Surely others have ordered these same ingredients many times and were never awarded a title.

But more than just ordering a “Number Ten,” I must have hinted towards putting my creation on the menu a dozen times. Finally, after years of visits and purchases — all while sampling different sandwich combinations — it eventually became a point of familiarity and connection for me and Mrs. Bui.

So, to the many new students: be persistent and patient and you will find your home at Penn.

And when you pass 38th and Spruce streets, don’t forget the ketchup and Bui Sauce on your Number Ten.

Ryan Daniels is a College senior from Philadelphia. Email him at ryanjdaniels1@gmail.com. “Daniels, Straight Up” appears every Wednesday.

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