Stay in touch Ellie!

The closer I get to leaving for China the more amazing people I meet, it is almost as if San Diego is trying to keep me here. A mere two months ago, I started talking to Ellie, this amazing girl who happened to be in two of my anthropology classes.


I needed a picture to finish this post, but it was well worth the wait!

Ellie's small frame hides the biggest heart and personality that I have met to date, and the more I discover about her, the more amazing I find her. My interest in her first started in one of my anthropology classes, where her unique story instantly drew my attention. In class, the professor had all the students draw maps of a place that was significant to us. Ellie drew a Christian school with a lot of little kids, explaining that it was her grandparents' school in Taiwan and every year she flies back and helps run the school. 

To get a sense of how nice she is, you should know that she was voted "the person most likely to give you their last slice of cake" in high school. Though she has told me that she was trying hard to stop being such a people pleaser, her constant willingness to inconvenience herself to help others has convinced me otherwise.  Her willingness to buy me a cup of coffee, or pay for my meal while at the same time refusing my attempts to pay her back make her more generous than my own coffee group. I have to say, being around her this quarter has actually made me nicer.  Nowadays, when faced with a situation where I am unsure about what to do, I ask myself "what would Ellie do?" because I know that is always going to be the kindest act.

During midterms week, I put myself in an extremely precarious situation where I had a midterm in six hours and had not yet started studying. Half expecting Ellie not to come, I texted her to join me at Peet's, even though I knew she did not really have anything to study for. She came, and I would have been more excited had I not been severely sleep deprived and on my second cup of terrible coffee in three hours. The entire time she was there, she was enthusiastically encouraging me to study and reassuring me that I was not screwed despite having just started studying. Ellie kept me company till my midterm came and then once again reassured me that I would do well. Thanks to her, I managed to get an A on that midterm.

When she told me how she adopted her dog, it reminded me of those stories that you only hear from a friend of a friend or through a magazine story. The kind of story that makes you wonder at who could be so nice and understanding, and if there really are people like that around you. I do not wonder anymore, because I was talking to such a person. Ellie had received an email forwarded from a friend about a soldier who was going to be deployed and desperately seeking someone to take his dog. Upon hearing that the dog was going to be put to sleep if no one was going to take him in, Ellie immediately adopted him. She arrived back at her apartment with a dog none of her roommates were expecting and she still has it to this day.  

As amazing as she is, she is an absolute nightmare in terms of keeping in touch and meeting up.  I try to talk to her as much as possible because I never know next time that I will be able to. Ellie has the tendency to drop off the face the earth.  She will not respond on facebook, email or the phone for days at a time. I have coined this phenomenon as going "dark" a term that I picked up on the job while talking to director who's station was shutting down. Ellie usually starts going dark on Friday and stays dark throughout the weekend. The fact that I am writing this after being flaked on by her again further reinforces this to me.  So yes, nobody is perfect.  

Sadly, as you can see in the picture, Ellie has graduated, meaning this summer might be the last time I see her.  However, there is hope since she will be spending time in China during the fall and/or winter.  The thought of meeting up with her is just too exciting!

Ellie, since you kept going dark, we never got the chance to bake éclairs in San Diego so lets just do it in China!

-muffinman