8/23/2005 - Victor Lin
I just got news that my friend, Victor Lin, died. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Victor was the first friend I made at college. We happen to run into each other on the first day while looking for a particular orintation seminar. As it turned out we were in a lot of the same classes that first semester. Victor was the most talented and hardest working artist one could ever met. And on top of it he was incredibly humble when it came to his own work.
But knowing him was incredibly humbling in itself. Like most fresh out of high school art students, I had an inflated ego. I had been the best artist at my high school and expected I would be the same in college. I couldn't have been more wrong. Victor on the other hand made no assumtions and was more interested in pushing himself than weather he was the best or not. It was because of this that he was easily the best. In becoming his friend that year, I began to following his work habbits and push myself. I became a much better artist because of him. In the following years, as we began to focus on our majors (Victor, film and I, illustration) our friendship drifted appart. I was still constanly awed by his work, but we moved in different crowds. After graduation I ran into him but once. I was on my way to work, and I have to say I was embarrassed about my current job situation as I was doing nothing with my degree nor my art. Victor was, I believe, working at a design firm at the time. After that I lost track of him completely.
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I got the news of his illness in an e-mail sent forwaded from a friend who was still in touch with another friend of victors. I quickly sent off and e-mail to Victor who had returned to Taiwan to be with his family while he underwent treatment. I imagined that he would recover and we would get a chance to reconnect. Sadly that will not happen and I am filled with regret for letting us drift in the first place and not trying sooner to get in touch with him. What it boils down to is I never really felt talented nor intelligent enough to be Victor's friend and it is too late that I realize above all things Victor was a decent human being who didn't judge people by such silly standards.
I miss him terribly and can only imagine what those who were still close to him are going through.
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