Life doesn't wait...

It's cold and rainy; a fitting setting for the last day of classes as a sophomore. I went to bed last night anxious for the academic week to conclude and my summer to begin. I trudged along to my final 9:00 class of the semester, cold with umbrella in hand, assuring myself that I would not have to make the walk across campus again until August.

However, once I got to class any negative thoughts escaped me, as they usually did every Tuesday and Thursday morning now that I think about it. Dr. Alexander's Educational Psychology course is one that I will remember forever -- one of the few college courses I truly became passionate about. I love that class. I love that professor. I actually loved studying the material. And now it's over. I find myself thinking, "I wish I failed this semester so I could take it again." Interesting logic, I know.

Before we departed the lecture hall for the last time, Dr. Alexander sent us off with a maternal, tear-filled, sentiment. To paraphrase, Dr. Alexander is so desperately passionate about her field because over thirty years ago she was told that she had a rare neurological disease that left her with only one year to live. Frantically, she enrolled in doctoral school (?!). Her logic was that if a neurological disease was going to take her life, she wanted to get as much use out of 'that brain of hers' as she could. She accomplished much more than she could ever imagine (she got her PhD in two years) literally by living each day as if it were her last. Dr. A wishes we will do the same.

I left class with conflicting emotions: honor to have had the opportunity to take part in such an amazing course, deep sadness it was over, and eagerness to proceed with college career to it's full potential.

Later, in my creating writing class (while I was making ambitious plans to write (and publish) a collection of short stories and poems,) I got the news that a boy who graduated with me has been in level four comatose for hours. Vinny was on a golf trip with his team when a stranger jumped him and beat him into a coma. I am horrified that something so brutally awful could happen to such an innocent person. How could anyone possibly deserve such a fate?

I pray for Vinny's full recovery, I pray for his family's courage, and I pray that we all take Dr. A's advice to live each day like it's our last, because life doesn't wait.