Life is Too Short
I spent a couple hours this afternoon with some former co-workers from my college newspaper days. It was great to see them, catch up with what was going on in our lives, talk about our kids and our memories from between 25 and 30 years ago. However, there was an underlying sadness. We came together to celebrate the life of one of our own, whose life was cut short by cancer the day after Christmas.
While there were only a few of us there from our group, it was a good sized gathering from different facets of her life. I remember her as always having a huge smile and a great spirit.
The greater group of alumni from our newspaper usually gets together every few years. And even though we’re not all able to make it each time, we all usually make our best efforts as those times were special to all of us. I remember them well, and I remember clearly whom I was back in those days, back when I thought we would change the world, or at least report on those who did.
This was also a reminder about how I’ve meant to ask a couple former classmates to let me bring my daughter to their workplace as she wants to be a journalist too, and I’d love to be able to give her the experience to see what it’s really like, even just as a peek.
Sadly, it seems far too frequent that one of our own is gone from the group forever, lost to the eternity of death. As one of my friends said today, it feels like we’re far too young to keep losing our college friends.
Today is a reminder to my University of Houston Daily Cougar alumni friends that it’s time again to get together, before we lose another person. It’s a reminder how short life is and how unfair it can be.
Never miss a chance to tell those you care about how you feel. We are never guaranteed tomorrow, and we often don’t have the opportunity of knowing in advance when we will lose someone. Don’t leave things unsaid. Live life to the fullest. All cliche ideas, yet also all very necessary to remember.
Marjorie Writes... 