Meet Mallory.

[circa May 2009]

Stats:
22.
Lexington, MA to the streets of Taiwan and back.
Fights obesity in America.
4 years & counting.


Story:
I met Mallory my freshman year of college at Oyama in the East Village. Though we discovered that we lived only a few floors apart in the same tower of the same dorm and started bumping into each other at least 2 to 3 times a week, it took her nearly two months before remembering anything about me. And once she started remembering me, it was not for the best. We got off to a very rocky start due to some...misconceptions about one another. Eventually, we got to know each other better and were able to move past our judgments.

Still, there was a moment in the middle of our freshman year that I clearly remember. During a lunch with a friend in Upstein, I confided that while I hung out with Mallory a lot & certainly had no qualms with her anymore, I could not see us ever becoming very close friends and that I doubted our friendship would last very long.

Four years later, I humbly and gladly say that I was very wrong.

Mallory and I are very different people with different interests & views, but there are few people in this world that I feel as comfortable around as I do with her. She's incredibly forgetful, oftentimes crazy, & undoubtedly odd, but those are some of the qualities I've grown to really appreciate in her; they make her Mallory to me. Even more importantly, she's taught me what accountability & a loving friendship looks like; has been open & honest with me; is hilarious -- really hilarious; always shows great passion in what she does, especially within her spiritual life; is far more humble than I am; cares genuinely about those around her and therefore challenges me to care more about those around me; & often acts as my voice of reason (don't be so surprised -- she's not always a "confused goldfish"!).

For all those reasons & more, I have to say that she's become one of my best friends. We have our ups & downs but in the end, I absolutely love her.