Benson lived across the hall during our freshmen year at USC. He was one of the first friends I made at school. He was also Chinese, from the Bay, and such a nerd lol. He immediately made school feel like home for me. Our freshmen year, every day when he got back to the dorm, he would yell in the hallway “EY YO A!” and I would respond “EY YO B!” His way of greeting to let me know he was home. 

We spent hours in Benson’s room on the fourth floor loudly meowing at people downstairs from his window, cracking up whenever someone would hear us and ducking down if they started looking up so they wouldn’t see us. 

We had long talks in the cafeteria talking about all the things we wanted in life, who we had crushes on, and Benson always telling me what was COOL aka lots of details about his obsession with RAW DENIM and SUPERdry. 

He was always down for an adventure, especially if there was boba involved. He would drive me back home to the Bay during breaks. He was the best road trip buddy, always full of funny stories, dumb jokes, and thoughtful questions. One of the best was “what is Mario’s favorite fabric?” DENIM DENIM DENIM

I met Benson on my first day at BIG. I remember him powering through his awkwardness to approach me to say we both came from USC. He went on to become one of my closest friends at work and in life. At work we all knew him as the ‘baby.’ One of the first stories he told me was about how he stuffed himself into the same revolving door section as his boss on the first day and it was wayyy too small. 

My first and most lasting impression of him was that he was so childlike, but also really wise, and I trusted his judgement on all things because he approached everything with so much care. When we were roommates, he would start the day by playing the intro song to La-la-land and we would belt it out loud. He put so much intention into every single hang out, making sure it was always the best day ever. He even made hospital fun, showing us the best things on the Sloan Kettering menu and making us try the chocolate cake. 

My nickname for him was 'Benstar' because that's what he was to me, a light. He was an extraordinary friend and I will miss him with all my heart.