A friend of mine gave me a hug on Saturday welcoming me back to campus and she said, "I heard you got some good news."  I thought, clearly she had made a mistake and was congratulating the wrong person.  I must have given her a confused look because she immediately explained that she heard McKinley's troubles were not life threatening.  Huh, I guess we did get good news.  My perception of the past few days was starting to shift.

 Moments later I was given the news of Marina Keegan's death.  Marina was an intelligent, beautiful, talented, charismatic, 22 year old that Jim and I knew from camp.  She graduated Yale days earlier and was on a Memorial Day vacation on Cape Cod.  At the end of her vacation she was to start her dream job in New York City.  Her boyfriend was driving, he swerved and as a result Marina is no longer with us.  I cannot even begin to imagine the grief her family is feeling.  I can think of nothing worse.  Below is a painting Marina did of Jim and I, it is us on a Raftco boat, the night we got engaged.

You can have the "perfect" life and the "perfect" children, and it can be taken from you in a split second.  My hope is that I can embrace this life, focus on the positive, and realize that everyone has a story to tell.  Some stories are sad, some joyous, some obvious, some hidden somewhere inside, and some absolutely unfair.