Pondering the Playboy experience

EUGENE, Ore. – With graduation starting to feel like a pending reality, I’ve been looking back a lot on the past four years. I realize I led a fairly uneventful existence until the Oct. 1999 issue of Playboy hit newsstands – with my photo in it. I couldn’t have predicted how much that one photo could change my life. Of course, it hasn’t all been fun and games.

When I heard Playboy was coming to campus my freshman year, I decided to try out. The impulsive move came partly from co-workers egging me on, and the rest was my remembering the tomboy image cast upon me during my formative years. Regardless, I thought it was something I would be able to laugh about later.

At my audition for the “Girls of the Pac-10″ issue, I had to disrobe down to my skivvies in front of longtime Playboy photographer David Chan. Despite my nervousness, my rational side assured me I’d merely be another body on a Polaroid in the reject pile.

I was wrong. I was selected, and several days later I was standing in a bikini with four other University girls – in the backyard of a fraternity – surrounded by yelling frat guys. Back at school the following year, just weeks after the issue hit newsstands – and seemingly the coffee tables of every frat house on campus – things began to change.

It may have been the 300-plus “fan e-mails” I received the week after the issue came out, but suddenly I had a following, although the idea that any guy (or several girls) would consider themselves my fans was ludicrous.

The e-mails didn’t really bother me, although they got old really fast. It was even flattering initially when guys would recognize me on campus. My naivet

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