Bacon. I've got two stories about Evan for you today. Both have to do with Evan's love for bacon. 

In 2017, for Evan's birthday, I took him out for breakfast at McDonald's, his restaurant of choice. 

I told him, "Order anything you want, Evan." 

He said, "Anything??" 

Thinking that he might order something breakfast-y like a sandwich or even hotcakes, I answered, "Yes, anything."

With that answer, he walked up to the counter, and confidently ordered, "Could I please have 20 pieces of bacon?"

And that's all he wanted for breakfast that day at McDonald's. 

It was a good bacon moment to remember. 

But wait, there's more.

One Saturday afternoon,  Evan, Ashley, Julia, Andrew, my parents and I went to an Irish Pub in Olympic village for lunch. When it came time to order, Evan asked the server, "I‘ll have the Fish & Chips, but instead of the chips I’ll have bacon.”

The server, amused at this kid's unabashedly high maintenance request, repeated, "So let me get this straight. You want Fish & Chips. No chips. Just bacon instead. Fish and Bacon?"

Evan: "Yes."

Server: "OK! Let me see what we can do." 

When time came for all our meals to be served, guess what came on Evan's custom Fish & Chips order? A plate of Fish & Bacon. No extra charges of course. 

I was Evan's advisor for his 9th and 10th grade years at Washington Leadership Academy. I jumped at the chance to be his advisor, as I have never advised an Asian kid since the founding of the school. It may seem shallow, but it was a real connecting point for us. We talked about what it felt like to be one of the only Asian kid in school, expectations, and even relationship talks. He was never forthcoming about his feelings, but he was always genuine about his interest in mine or his classmate's. Our advisory was almost like a boy's club where we talked, understood each other, and, of course, played videogames. His favorite character was Kirby and he got quite good under the moniker of "Potato."  As we turned to virtual learning, he still attended each of our advisory classes, even though I knew he wasn't going to all of his classes. He and I remained close through those trying years of virtual learning to the point that he asked me to write his letter of recommendation. It was one of the easiest ones to write as his accomplishments and character were some of his brightest attributes. The world wasn't ready for him!

Evan, you will be missed, and you will never be forgotten.