Measure Your Life in Love

Sister K graduated from the UCONN School of Business this past Mothers' Day weekend. It was also the 10th anniversary of the death of our brother, who, oddly enough, was driving himself to back Providence from UCONN where he had been visiting some friends and fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car. So I went down to CT to celebrate my sister, honor my mother, and remember my brother.

When we lost him, I was very angry, but eventually I really started to focus on what was important in life. I try to take advantage of opportunities afforded to me, and I try to let my family and friends know how important they are to me. I also try to follow his example in the way he lived life, especially in not taking things things too seriously and being open to new people and trying not to judge them. (I don't always succeed at either, but I am more conscious of it.)

When he died at the age of 22, he had a whole slew of friends from a bunch of diverse backgrounds and parts of his life. He still had so much he could have done; he didn't even get the chance to graduate from college. The friends he left behind though and the support that they gave to our family and each other was the mark he made in the world, and that was a very substantial thing. As Edward Everett Hale once said, "The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life."