For about half a year now Amir and I were roommates here at Stanford, and I still can’t quite accept the fact that he is gone so suddenly.
I really miss him, because we developed a great friendship, and living with him was fun. I got along well with other roommates, but with him I really connected, and we became involved in each other’s social lives. My sometimes reserved attitude after a tiring day didn’t faze Amir, rather he cracked it with some good-natured humor and we ended up having some profound conversations. We went to parties together, we went mountain biking, played some computer games, and genuinely took an interest in each other’s well-being. We even started sharing a few deeper thoughts about our girlfriends, however cautiously. I think all this is the result of Amir’s great personality and genuine straightforward attitude, and the respect I have for him as a person of moral integrity, critical and unbiased thinking, and tolerance towards others. On the surface, Amir and I have somewhat different cultural backgrounds, I grew up in Germany and am fairly liberal, and Amir said early on that he was somewhat conservative – yet surprisingly, I never felt the slightest bit of tension between us, indeed, I never before had a roommate as wonderful as him.
Amir – I lost a great friend in you, and I miss the occasional hollering each other’s name when we returned home – this is but one small example of how there were many things which you brought along, some of which were unlike me, but all of which enriched my life.
– Sebastian Osterfeld