Jackie Majerus, Kaishi Lee and Steve Collins at Wesleyan University recently.

It seems like forever ago that a young girl from Singapore, Kaishi Lee, sent us an email asking about joining The Tattoo. We said to ourselves: Singapore! Cool!
Kaishi quickly began turning out memorable pieces, from Tom Cruise winking at her (and nothing more, thank goodnes) to heartfelt columns after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. She became a real newshound, breaking the news that a young skateboarder had died in an ESPN-sponsored competition in Singapore and detailing the world championship for high school debaters. She even got the story, from thousands of miles away, of a teen elected mayor in Pennsylvania.
Beyond her work, however, Kaishi also became our friend. She constantly asked us about our lives, our country, our kids, the paper and more. She has the natural curiousity of any great reporter.
In all that time, we never met, just IM'd, emailed and had a few short talks on the phone, mostly during Tattoo parties. But we got to know her.
When the time came for Kaishi to go to college, she dreamed of going to America, but knew the odds were long, with price tags that seemed out of reach and tough competition for all too few slots. To cut to the chase, Kaishi hit the jackpot and nabbed a Freeman Scholarship that is making it possible for her to attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. for free.
We shouted right along with her when she got the news that she'd been selected. (Her work for The Tattoo helped her stand out.)
Instead of being halfway around the globe, Kaishi would be half an hour down the road.
So a couple of weeks ago, we finally met up, at a bookstore near the campus.
We all hugged, at last.
One of our faraway Tattoo family was, finally, close at hand.