http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/big_news.shtml Not until my future classmates and upperclassmen publicly declared that Ben Jones was the reason why they first wanted to go to MIT had I started thinking that he was probably the reason why I did, too. I'm sure if you search my blog archive, you will find somewhere an entry where I rambled about how one of his blog posts (
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/its_more_than_a_job.shtml ) inspired me - and surely it wasn't the only one. Come to think of it, his blogs, along with other bloggers', were what really brought MIT so close to me and made it feel like home.
So, Ben Jones. He was the man whose words I have been reading and felt grateful for. He was part of the MIT admission committee, with whom I had had the best and warmest experience during my college application process. He read my application, checked my scores, read my essays that I had wrote from my heart - and he admitted me to MIT. Or "invested", as he put it. You know what it means - he trusted me, even when I wasn't sure of myself.
Then I checked out his appreciation thread on MIT class of 2012's discussion board, and listened to everyone telling everyone else what a great person he is. Upperclassmen recalled his warmth of personalities, how he had been a major support to them, how his office became their second home where he was like a surrogate parent who talked to them about everything in life. People in class of 2012 recounted their few moments encountering Ben Jones at Campus Preview Weekend, who instantly recognized knew who they were - from their applications that he had read - and welcomed them "home".
After the news, I added the man on facebook, with a short note: "Bye Ben!". Ironically, I thought, my first direct word to him was a farewell. It somehow disappoints me that I won't see and get to know Ben as a person, while people around will surely be talking about him. Our lives have just run tangent to each other's - and strange as it may sound, I feel like I've just missed something significant.
