Hi, my name is Benedikte. I’m Fred’s older sister. Some of you are probably wondering why I’m speaking in English, and it’s actually not out of deference to those of you who speak English in here. It’s because Fred liked English better than Norwegian. He didn’t think much of Norwegian, but most importantly, he felt he communicated better in English than in Norwegian.

I wasn’t planning on saying anything today, but on my ride over to here I had his voice in the back of my head saying: “Get your stuff together, Benedikte. Just do it”. And that was really typical of Fredrik – to underscore the point that it doesn’t matter what others may think of what you say and do, and to not be afraid of embarrassing yourself – because really – who cares (?) So, here goes. I thought maybe I’d just talk about him a little; tell you guys about what he liked to do and who he was.

First of all, Fred was really into politics and pretty much all kinds of societal issues. We talked a lot about political ideology and most recently, Trump’s world leadership or lack thereof, some might say. I remember the night of the election. We e-mailed every day for some years, but the night of the election he wasn’t responding as quickly as he used to. The morning after the election, he replied saying he’d been so busy watching the election he’d barely had time to eat or drink. He wrote me a brief analysis on the election and his thoughts on Trump’s win (which were dire) and that he despite the election’s outcome didn’t think Trump would be impeached.

We also discussed human rights a lot. I had to take a Human Rights course last year in law school and because it obviously touches on various general topics of society not requiring any knowledge about the law, it quickly became a topic he and I discussed both over E-mail and once we saw each other. I remember one time when we were discussing human rights, I asked him which country he liked better – Norway or the United States. He asked me back which country protects the right to privacy better. I answered probably the United States, but that lately the Norwegian Supreme Court often ruled in favor of the private individual or celebrity claiming their right to privacy had been breached. After that he said I had to keep him updated on just how far the Norwegian Supreme Court was going in protecting the right to privacy, so that he could reevaluate his opinion later on. I’m not entirely sure which country he’d end up liking the most, but that won’t keep me from following the Norwegian Supreme Court closely in its future rulings regarding the right to privacy.

Another topic we often touched on – one of which it is doubtful can be characterized as a political or societal issue -is hippies.  We often talked about the various kinds of hippies that existed and what their typical characteristics were. I actually happened to live next to a hippie, so needless to say we often discussed what kind of hippie she was based on stories I was telling him about her. For example, when I walked past her apartment window I’d often see green plants sticking out from her shutters. She wasn’t able to close them because she had so many green plants inside of her apartment (!)  I sent over these pictures to Fred and then we would write back and forth to each other, trying to determine what the pictures meant in light of our attempt to figure out what kind of hippie she was.

One day I had to knock on her door to get her to keep quiet and out came a Jamaican. Fred had actually predicted that my neighbor either was a Jamaican hippie or a college know-it-all hippie based on what I was writing to him about her. I thought it was pretty incredible and very funny that he’d been able to predict that.

Anyway, when we discussed these matters, there were particularly two things I noticed which made me proud to be his older sister. First of all, it was very important to him that we were factually correct in our arguments. Facts had to win over mere logical, persuasive arguments that weren’t really founded in facts. He liked to win, of course, but not at the expense of facts. I thought this showed a level of maturity probably not commonplace in fifteen-year olds. Secondly, he was pre-occupied with the idea that one wasn’t too “PC” in one’s arguments. “PC” means politically correct, for those of you not familiar with the term. I remember when I started law school some years ago, he sent me an E-mail with a video portraying people practicing PC. He wrote in one sentence below the video: ” Please don’t turn into these people”. Hopefully I haven’t turned into to a “PC” person.

My second bullet point is that Fred was very brave. He had things he was afraid of and/or uncomfortable doing, yet he faced them. For instance, Fred was afraid of flying. He told me that once. But when we flew together, especially to Qatar, he used to take off his headphones and just talk to me when he saw that I was slightly scared.

My last bullet point is that Fred taught me to just always be your self. This bullet point is the most important. Those of you who went to school with Fred don’t need further persuasion that he was one of a kind and not afraid to show it. He always wore his hoodies and accepted everyone for who they were. This is what I admire him for and what I wish to always keep and mind and really live by. I think everyone should live by this more.

So, that’s all. I don’t think Fred would be especially embarrassed or akwarded out by this. See you later, Fred.