In memory of Marcus Eriksson, sophomore

To "never judge a book by its cover" took on a whole new meaning for business management senior Melissa Rodriguez  after she met Marcus Eriksson.

"Once you get to know somebody, that's who they really are," she said. "He was the most amazing person in my life."

On Dec. 3, FGCU sophomore Eriksson died in his Coastal Village apartment of an apparent drug overdose.

"I had just met him this year. ... We met one day at a party," Rodriguez said. "Ever since then, we had become really good friends."

The two would take a million goofy pictures with each other, cook together and have sit-down dinners, and play loud music and dance around their apartments. Their relationship had begun to develop into something more.

"The funny thing is, the night it all happened was the night I was going to say something to him so I never got a chance to," Rodriguez said. "But I knew how he felt about me, and I knew how I felt about him."

Eriksson loved to skateboard. Many comments on his Facebook included memories of skateboarding in his Tampa hometown — one friend even posted that Eriksson "gave him his board and told him to start (skating) again and stick with it."

"His biggest thing was always helping other people — he was a great listener," Rodriguez said. "He was a communication major, but he and I had spoken about him becoming a psychology major because he was that much better."

Rodriguez suggested Eriksson chose communication because he wanted to do something with film after college. She also mentioned he used to film skateboarders at the skatepark in Tampa.

Eriksson also loved music and was a poet; many of his Facebook statuses included sentences with poetic rhythms and his most recent note was a poem about his infatuation for another person, posted Nov. 25.

At his funeral Dec. 10, Rodriguez said Eriksson's Uncle David, who was "very high-spirited, just like Eriksson," was trying to lighten the mood by urging everyone to think about all of the good times they shared with Eriksson rather than to be upset.

"He was a very down-to-earth, humble, very smart person," Rodriguez said. "He was never the one to come to you first to start talking except with me.… He always thought about other people before himself and never wanted to worry you with his problems."