UNC Chapel Hill OTR: Eve Carson Tribute, Part I

Eve Carson Tribute, Part I

Posted by Pokey T 03/17/2008 3:30 PM
Category: Hotness Tags: Eve Carson

This is Part I of OTR's tribute to Eve Carson. This week, there will be a new post each day featuring a letter, story, or thought from someone who knew Eve firsthand.

Today's comes from Chris Balga (pictured above):

Eve was truly an amazing woman. I had a chance to work with her
while I was at Carolina for grad school this past year and we
eventually became good friends. I worked with her on her student
body president campaign by putting up posters and getting the word
out about her plans for UNC-CH. Nothing major, just low level
contributor to the campaign. Getting to know Eve I could tell she
genuinely cared about the students, faculty, staff and the town of
Chapel Hill.

I was just blown away by how driven and determined she
was to make UNC-CH an even better place to go to school.

When she won, I got a chance to just talk with her about what I had
seen being not only a undergrad at UNC but now a grad student. She
always was eager to get a different perspective from me from being
beyond the undergrad years. We developed a good friendship after
that. We always loved trading stories of college life or our worldly
travels. We both had a real love for teaching and she was so
supportive of me being able to pursue my dream of being a high school
teacher.

Whenever we met for coffee or randomly on campus she
always had a great smile and a big hug or high five to give.

She told me that she wanted to make the student body president
someone more visible to the student body than before and she would do
whatever she could to make sure that would happen whether it was
having more office hours or showing up to many of the campus events.
She never once felt that it was a requirement or a burden to do
that.

She wanted to do that because she loved the student body so
much and wanted to give back to them the support they
showed her by supporting them by any way she could.

I will never forget what she said to me the last time we talked, which
was four days before she was taken from us.

She said, "Chris, you are doing amazing things teaching
at that high school. You truly believe that each student
can do great things and that is what they need in this
world. That is what separates a good teacher from a great
teacher. I am so proud of you and I know that your
students see that. You keep at it friend."

Reflecting on those words now make me
so happy that I had the privilege to know and call friend.

When I got the call last Thursday afternoon from a close friend that
Eve was dead, my whole body had just frozen and I could not believe
what I heard. Someone who was so kind, gentile and true was taken
away from us all so tragically, it broke my heart and soul. My tears
and sadness I know are shared with everyone who knew Eve. She
inspired me and always pushed me to reach further, dream bigger, and
dare to fly beyond all expectations. She was an angel on earth and
now she is an angel looking down on us, continuing to guide and
inspire us. I will never forget Eve and the impact she had on my
life. I will miss you Eve. You will always be my very good friend.