Meleah Jones
InFlight Advisor, 2004 – 2005
June 14, 2005
As we come together today to celebrate the life of Sharon Cao, we are all faced with a dilemma: How do we say goodbye to someone we don’t want to let go of? How do we say goodbye to someone we’re still in the process of getting to know? How do we say goodbye when she left us so suddenly, so unexpectedly?
My answer? We don’t. We don’t say goodbye… not to Sharon. Instead, we say, “I’ll take you with me…”
I will take Sharon with me in tow capacities, each representative of how I picture Sharon in my mind. The first is her sense of humor. I cannot think of Sharon without seeing her mischievous smile and faux “evil” expression, hands together, hatching some plan. When I first met Sharon, I thought she was a quiet and sweet girl. Though this was true, I was missing the essence of her: her humor. When I got to know Sharon on our journalism trip to Seattle, got to know her outside of the classroom, I became fortunate enough to join the lucky few who knew Sharon well enough to tease her and be teased by her. We had our inside jokes of mistaken identities and who was more “evil” to whom. And we were never tired of them. Sharon made me laugh so many times. And the amazing thing was, she was witty and hilarious witty and hilarious without sacrificing anyone as the butt of her jokes. I never heard Sharon utter one word of malice.
I will take this part of Sharon with me:
her ability to make people laugh, to produce joy in others. My relationship
with Sharon, short as it was, reminds me that everything in life is better if
you make it fun.
The other image of Sharon that springs to
my mind is her staring intently at the computer screen, her face slightly
scrunched in concentration, racking her brain, trying to figure out how to line
up the columns on her page or omit dreaded extra white space. Sharon was so
intelligent and such a good worker. She had an amazing work ethic. Not only did
she meet every deadline, a truly rare feat, but she didn’t resist suggestions
on how to improve her writing. As smart and talented as Sharon was, I never
heard her utter an arrogant word. She exemplified a blend of confidence and
modesty that we should all strive for. She was confident enough to satisfy her
perfectionist streak yet humble enough to see critique as a step towards
improvement, I try to teach my students to take pride in the work they produce,
but this was one lesson Sharon didn’t need to be taught; she already lived her
life in this way.
She cared about success even when it wasn’t her own. She would often stop her own pursuits in order to help others progress. She didn’t roll her eyes, scoff, or act annoyed when asked to put her own work on pause in order to help a classmate, or myself, finish a task for the paper. In fact, she would often help us without even having to be asked.
This is the other part of Sharon that I’ll take with me: her motivation to do things astoundingly well and her sincere willingness to help others. In honor of Sharon’s constant sense of responsibility and her generous spirit as InFlight staff member, I will begin awarding an annual Sharon Cao Award to the person on our staff who most exemplifies Sharon in these ways.
What part of Sharon will you take with you? What part of her will you strive to adopt into your personality? Her ready grin that stretched from ear to ear? Her lighthearted cynicism? Her ceaseless loyalty to friends? Whatever strikes you most about Sharon, take that. Sharon was so vibrant, so smart, so funny, so fun. The various aspects of her personality and her life far outweigh the tragedy of her death.
Let us not forget them. Let’s take them with us, and in doing so, we’ll take Sharon with us too.