Nov. 13 is the one-year anniversary of the death of Nohemi Gonzalez, the only American among 130 killed in the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Nohemi was on a semester abroad, trading in 15 weeks at California State University, Long Beach, for an experience at Strate School of Design in Sèvres, outside of Paris. She was the first in her family to attend college — a Mexican-American industrial design student on her way to becoming one of just over 15 percent of young Hispanics who hold a bachelor’s degree.

On the night she was killed, she was enjoying the City of Light like a Parisienne, in a lively bistro on Rue de Charonne, perhaps toasting her Cal State design team, which, she had just learned, placed second in a competition for efficient packaging of snack food. The packaging would decompose, leaving no trace behind.

It is hard to truly know this student from public comments. The language of grief exalts and reduces the dead with larger-than-life words. She is described by friends as “always happy,” “beautiful” and “a bright spirit.” Her own Facebook posts give a sense of a more particular Nohemi: “Learning a 3D modeling computer program in a language I don’t know is up there in the top three hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” (The reader can’t help but wonder what the other two hard things were.)