I have been starting and restarting sentences and stories, in my head and on paper, since I found out about Steven’s death. Honestly, where do you begin to express all of the things you feel and all of the things you remember about someone so special? It’s been even harder as the week has progressed, as I have become more and more involved in this book of thoughts and memories. There are so many amazing stories and so many talented writers among us. It is truly a testament to what a great person Steven was and how much he meant to all of us.

As for my own experiences with Steven, I will always remember him as the person with whom I discovered San Francisco. It’s not always easy getting settled into a new city, but it’s great when you have someone to do it with. We would check out new neighborhoods and restaurants, share stories of our distant friends and our cats (Steven's Muffin and my Coco) that we had dumped on our parents, have long discussions about the merits of long-distance relationships and if they were really worth the headache, search for interesting plants throughout the city and try to bring them home and keep them alive in our apartment that really only got a lot of sunlight in one room. Every day, there were new stories to share and every weekend, there were new adventures to be had. I felt blessed that my new roommate was so awesome and the best companion that I could have ever asked for.

As a result of my friendship with Steven, there's something else I'm thankful for - the chance to become part of what I like to call “the extended Asian family.” After our sublet at the Pine Street house was up, we talked about finding a new place for us, bringing in Sooyoung, who was moving to San Francisco. Steven ended up stuck in New York and wasn’t sure when he was coming back. Sooyoung seemed equally as cool and we ended up as roommates instead. Because of my connection with Steven though, I now know so many more incredible people in my life - people that I have come to love and cherish over the last three years, people that I would be totally lost without.

-Winnie Chang

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