Partly Cloudy, 64°
It was early October when Emily Thompson '12 first started to have doubts about the nature of her good friend Alan Marin's finest virtue. Thompson met Marin '12, an economics concentrator, during their freshman year in Keeney. The two were unacquainted until one night when Thompson, having just broken up with her high school boyfriend, stumbled upon Marin in the laundry room. "I was so upset and I didn't really have anyone to talk to," recalls Thompson, "When I saw Alan there separating his whites and colors, I don't know, I just broke down." What followed was a three-hour tale of heartbreak, with Thompson divulging every detail of her and her ex-beau's five-month romance.
"Alan was great," Thompson said. "He kept nodding and reassuring me, he was just such a good listener." This serendipitous encounter proved to be the first in what would become a long relationship of understanding between the two. Thompson was soon frequenting Marin's room, where Marin would offer uncontroversial support in response to a bevy of emotionally charged issues.
Recently, however, Thompson began to feel uncertain about the future of their friendship. She first noticed the one-sidedness of their relationship after she confessed to Marin the dubious results of her first sexual encounter. "I mean, it was clear he was listening," Thompson recounts, "but he never really contributed. He just kept saying 'Yeah' and 'I understand.'"
Thompson remembers one occasion when she unsuccessfully tried to get Marin to open up. "I wanted to know about his love life, but he insisted it wasn't worth getting into, so we would just change the subject back to me."
At first, Thompson believed that Marin was merely shy, but soon she began to suspect that maybe he was just much less interesting. "I mean, he must do things. but come to think of it, the only times I see him he's eating takeout from the Ratty and watching YouTube."
Thompson has not been the only one to notice this disturbing trend. Mark Shelman '11, a classmate and self-proclaimed "acquaintance" of Marin offers a similar story. After receiving a bad grade, Shelman recalls complaining to Marin about their professor. "His sympathetic ear really made me feel better." However, Shelman became suspicious when only a week later he overheard Marin praising the same professor with another student. "He did a total 180!" an outraged Shelman said, "It was like he didn't even have his own opinion."
Currently, Thompson is considering cutting ties with Marin entirely. "He's really nice, sure, but that's about it," Thompson said. Within the next week she plans on inviting Marin over to discuss with him the "earth shattering" aftermath of her latest hook-up, essentially giving Marin a "final chance" to prove himself more than just a good listener. "But if he doesn't offer any constructive input, I'm through."
When approached by the Noser, Marin listened respectfully, but ultimately declined to comment, choosing instead to applaud the reporter's overall journalistic integrity.
