Nick Davis (Back Bay)

Nick Davis’s new year’s resolution was to be able to touch his toes. The Boston University junior positions himself on the floor, one leg outstretched behind and another tucked beneath him as he leans forward in a push-up like demonstration. “I’ve been going to yoga,” he says. “This is the pigeon pose. I can’t really do it in jeans, but I promise you it opens up your upper thighs and releases all this tension. It’s amazing.”

Straightening up, the Santa Monica, Calif., native does the pants dance and adjusts his trendy t-shirt before sitting back down. “I’m on a health kick this semester,” he says. “Not because I’m a health Nazi, but because my friends and I from home have this bet … It’s like a race to see who loses the most weight. We each put in $50 and whoever loses the most this semester gets all $200.”

While Davis is spending a lot of time sweating hard for that money at the gym this semester, the majority of it is spent around campus, either catching up with friends over coffee at the student union or over a game of Mario Party in his apartment. The aspiring fashion photographer has a plan beyond his 2008 resolution and fun-time campus crawl: he’d like to travel the world, experience new cultures, observe up-and-coming trends in foreign lands while documenting his findings with a camera.

“He always has his camera on him,” said Michelle Khedr, Davis’s best friend from home. “If he’s not taking pictures he’s talking about the pictures he should take.”

Davis, constantly carries his heavy Canon 40D around his neck, is a few inches short of 6 feet. He has a grin from ear to ear and a of mess hair on the top of his head, often parted with a pair of the most stylish sunglasses.

Making note of the snapshots on the wall in his dorm room, Davis recognizes the face of a friend abroad. It’s been a tough year. Most of his best friends are studying abroad. He calls this “a growing year.”

“He’s by himself out there on the East Coast [this year]; his core group of friends that would support him when he’s down and out aren’t there,” said Jennifer Davis, his older sister. “Without anybody to lean on … things are hard, he is really learning who he is.”

His friends aren’t worried about him. “He is a great friend and the one person I know that would never talk badly about me or anyone behind their back,” said Erin Kutz, Davis’s friend from BU.

“He’s very outgoing,” said Kutz. “When I first met him he talked to me right away even though I had never met him before, and he’ll do that with anyone … he’d go into anyone’s room and sit down and talk. It’s refreshing because he’s not stuck up, ever, and he never holds back, which is rare.”

“He is the warmest, friendliest most loving person,” Jennifer said. “He is my best friend in the entire world. I can’t even stress warm, but the top word that me and my friends use to describe him is fabulous. You have to say it the right way, of course. Fabulous!”

When asked why he left sunny California frigid Boston, he replied: “I want to fabulize the East Coast.”