Before Freshman Camp 2006, as the counselors prepared for the newest class of students, Eve Carson came up to me and said, "Hi Andrew, we haven't met, I'm Eve." The rest is history.
My freshman year was difficult to say the least. I had trouble getting involved with groups and felt as if I could never get a break.
I resigned myself to the idea that the school was just too big for one student to make a difference.
Then I met Eve. After three days of Freshman Camp, we traded numbers and started a remarkable friendship.
That fall I received an e-mail from Eve asking me to join her campaign for student body president. In the e-mail she continually stressed the importance of every student's voice, including my own.
As the campaign went on we got closer, and I learned so much from her. She instilled in me a firm belief in the fact that as students at this university we have the opportunity to do great things, and we must work hard for these things to happen.
She taught me that all it takes is an idea and the willingness to voice that idea. Great things are in our hands; we just need to take that step.
Eve did all of this with the biggest smile on her face. She truly loved every minute of the campaign. She loved meeting every single student. She not only loved meeting them, but loved hearing their stories and thoughts and sharing them with all the members of her campaign. She would hear an idea and immediately wanted to find a place for it in our platform.
Eve taught me how to lead and have fun. Every moment with Eve was a party in itself. While preparing for the election, Eve would talk about the most ridiculous plans for our time in the Pit. Ideas such as break dancing, bagpipes and basketball players were thrown out there.
We all laughed at the thought. Then the next thing we knew a bagpiper was walking through campus to the Pit. She made things happen; she wouldn't sleep or give up until she found a way for things to work. Things like having a spring music festival, starting a junior scholarship and being the student body president.
So, after the election ended I decided to take the first step and voice my ideas to try to make this University the best it could be. I applied for Homecoming vice chairman in the Carolina Athletic Association. I ended up not getting that position.
Instead I was asked to be CAA vice president. I went to Eve with a lot of fear and trepidation. What was Colby Almond thinking? Eve told me to make the most of it. Do things that haven't been done - start with an idea and go from there.
I came into my own under the tutelage of Colby Almond and the rest of the CAA Cabinet, but without everything I learned from Eve, I doubt I would have even applied.
In December I went down to Eve's office, a somewhat common occurrence, and told her I was going to run for CAA president. She was elated. She was so excited for me and acted as if it was one of the biggest things she had ever heard.
She always had a way of making you feel like everything you were doing was truly special. I won the CAA election uncontested, and the first person to write on my Facebook wall was Eve.
I don't know if she knew how important she was to me and my development here at Carolina. I now and always will work to better the student body because, as Eve taught me: If I don't, who will?
