i got an email this morning from marissa, one of my teammates from college. margaret, another one of our teammates, passed away from brain cancer last week. neither marissa or i had had any idea she had cancer. i sat re-reading the email for awhile. i tried working again, but found i was unable to concentrate. i'd go back and re-read the email.
i can only remember margaret being happy and healthy. we were teammates on the cross-country, track and crew teams, so my memories of her are filled with many a long run, pasta party or bus ride to a meet. the fall that we started rowing, the coaches basically pitted us against each other because we could out pull girls a lot heavier than us on an erg and definitely out run them...so we were left to push each other. i'm grateful for her presence as a role model and am glad i got to be her teammate.
although i realize its dangerous to dwell too much on the past, i spent a lot of today thinking about it. sometimes i wonder how life would have worked out if things had happened some other way, but then if they did, maybe i would never have gone to mit or moved to hawaii or come to texas or met any of the people that i have along the way. i wouldn't give up the people. the challenge is to stay in touch with everyone to help celebrate, support, grieve, whenever its most needed and to let them know how much they're valued and loved.
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