I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou

 

I met Paul Walker how most people did: falling in love with those crystal clear blue eyes in the movie theater (Skulls, to be exact).

 

I met him for the first time in real life when I was a senior at NYU. I was interning in the Development Department at Fuse, when my boss told me that I was able to sit in on a pitch meeting… with Paul Walker! My all-time celebrity crush!

The meeting was an intimate affair: Paul and his business partner, my two bosses at Fuse, and myself. It was so intimate that I don’t believe I ever made direct eye contact with him. Yes, I really took advantage of that moment. I didn’t make a noise. I didn’t ask a question. I believe my voice cracked when I said my name. It was a highlight of my charismatic skills.

 

Two years later I sat down in the chair above for the Fast & Furious IV junket. Before the interview started, I told him that I had actually met him before (does being in the same room count as meeting?) at Fuse when I was an intern… “Yeah, and I was pitching the skateboarding show,” Paul said, finishing my sentence.

“You remembered me?” I asked. Shocked.

“Of course,” he replied, like it was no big thing, telling me details about that meeting and what I was doing that I didn’t even remember. He asked me how I was finding life after graduation. Him, the star, asking me, the newbie reporter, about my life. And he genuinely wanted to know.

 

I will never forget the feeling I had in that moment.

Flattery. Giddiness. And above all, that I was important.

 

I always imagined I would interview him at the next Fast & Furious junket and tell him how important that moment was to me… but time flies by… and so do those opportunities.

 

Paul paid attention to people, even the intern. Gawker called him a “Goddamn Saint”. I have to agree.

 

Rest in Peace Paul Walker. You were truly someone special.