Dear Audrey, Emma, & Courtney,
It is very rare to have a presence so comforting that on a hard day, anyone walks up and feels comfortable letting it all go on you. Yet, even though I was in the middle of campus, one time of Keith asking how I was felt like open enough arms that I started crying. And, it is even more rare to be so standup that he then proceeded to walk me back to my house, letting me cry out each of the insignificant issues. When I told him about a bad test grade, he told me ‘But you want to be a doctor one day you can’t let the one test get you down!”. I had probably mentioned this goal once before, which forever stood out to me that he picked that up and recalled it in random conversation. When my 5’2 self looked up and told Keith I felt fat, he gave a good chuckle at my tears and said I was like a ‘Chicken McNugget’ and he was the ‘Big Mac’ - one of the only times I ever laughed during a breakdown. Just this one memory has stood out to me since - because on a day I felt very alone, and probably the first day I had seen him since the previous year, he dropped everything to make me feel better, and even adjusted to my speed (one much more dramatic than his good soul could ever be) just so I felt listened to. It was the most kind moment I experienced that quarter.
Above that, I was blessed with many Keith hugs and laughs and lessons. So recently, there was someone from out of our Cal Poly bubble visiting at our house barbecue, and though his differences made many pass with no conversation, I vividly remember watching from my seat when Keith walked up, bonded over a steak and a joke, and was the first person to make that visitor really feel included. Keith even asked for his social media to keep in touch, and when the visitor left back to his Marine Corps training the next day, he brought up multiple times to me how hilarious that ‘guy that looked like a big friendly giant’ was. Watching Keith bond with such open-mindedness was my stepping stone to be doing the same that night, and many other random times. I would always joke with Keith that he was my only friend at the football or Lambda party, and he’d usually make me talk to some other guy with him to show me what he loved about them.
My last note is - I looked through the beautiful pictures of Keith and friends. I noticed in every one my roommate Olivia, smiling the most genuinely and carefree I’ve ever seen. Olivia hates having her picture taken, so it is evident that Keith’s presence was so happy and pure, that in those photos I don’t think she even realized her picture was being taken. If I brought it up I’m sure she would say “Only Keith could make me too happy to realize a photo was being taken.”
I’m sure many others have experienced this, but when I think how I will Live Like Keith, I cannot wrap my head around how one person encompassed so many goodhearted traits. If everyone could even do half as Living Like Keith, the world will see brighter days. I will forever look up to how Keith was everything to everyone - to family, friends, his fraternity, his team, his girlfriend, and strangers. His love was never spread thin, even though it was given to so many. I will take my steps to living more like Keith, knowing that the most wise and beautiful soul is looking over and guiding all of us.