People: Paul Miyake

I have been out of college for two years now. A lot of people have impacted me in those two years and I figure that it is high time that I start to tell them how they make me feel. I am focusing primarily on the people that I did not get a chance to thank in college but have left their imprint on me since. I have no target number to compete, but I need to inform people that they have loved. Considering that I have grown less emotional since college, this project does pose its problems; have grace on me please. This post is about someone so racially ambiguous, Paul Miyake.

Paul, for years you were very mysterious to me and I did not quite understand you. I tried to be your friend and here you were, Mr. Cool in the eyes of everybody and for good reason. You exude cool and you have since the day that I have met you. You have been blessed with a magnetism that I do not really see in many other people. I think that for a long time you had not experienced true, deep, long-lasting friendship because you did not know how to. You even told me something akin to that near the end of your junior year. I do not know what changed, but I can tell you that over the course of your last year, year and half of college, you developed and cultivated so many deep, long-lasting friendships. Your reputation grew and changed, not so much Mr. Cool (though you undoubtedly still were and are), but as a leader, a man, and friend who loves well. I can say that you are one of only a few people that I have seen so clearly grow in such a time so palpably in the exact area that you wanted to, and it is an encouragement to me as someone who is seeking always to grow. Last year I needed you in so many ways, needed your friendship. You were an encouragement to my faith, to my own ability to lead; you showed me that there are young people who care about good, decent things. It has been such an honor to support you in your year in the middle east, and it has given me so much joy to see you grow throughout the time I know you. You have gone from a boy into a man, and I am not exaggerating when I say that. You now have a collectedness about you, but not without the ability to infect others with your laughter all the same.
I think that what you have given me most Paul, is somebody to think through things with. You know that I am a thinker, always pensive, and you have always given me an avenue to expunge on. Not only have you listened to me but you ask good questions. Paul, there were times last year when I leaned so heavily on you in so many ways and I was able to ask you to keep me accountable for things because I respected and still respect you far too much to lie to you. I needed that honesty and all of these things have given me ample reason to tell you that you have loved me so well. There is for sure an imprint on my life over the past two years that you have left, and you are one of only a handful of guys (a small handful at that) that I would trust others to. This is because you lead faithfully and you love with reckless abandon.
All of these things sound gaudy Paul, but I really love you and I am so excited for the next time that I get to see you. I have told you before that I can easily see myself being friends with you for the entirety of my life and that is something that I still hold on to and am confident in. I am praying for you, Kiddo.