Right now, I'm glad to be home.  It's a very restful relief from the stress of school that for some reason was piling up last week.  And I mean I really didn't have that much work last week, but I think that knowing Spring Break was imminent, I allowed it to feel like I had a lot more to do than I actually did.

With that said, I really need to get back on a more regular sleep schedule.  It seems that without normal sleep patterns, everything is screwed up.  It's a good lesson to learn.  It's just that the conversations I've been having at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning are so much more interesting than the ones I have during the day!

Anyway, life's been pretty good.  Things are getting better with someone I wanted everything to get better with.  Then I've been randomly talking to this guy Anna knows through class, and he's been pretty interesting.  We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday, I went to the WSSO's concert, which was Verdi's Reqieum.  It was excellent.  And, all in the same weekend, the women's basketball team beat Duke to be the ACC Tournament champions, and the men beat Duke at Cameron, winning the ACC regular season title.  Needless to say, it was a good weekend for basketball.

I don't really have anything planned today, probably just more hanging out at the house.  I'm out for now!

Eve Carson. Her sudden death shook our campus. And it was such an immense loss. I'm afraid of even attempting to write about this because nothing I can say compare to what she did while she was here. I didn't know Eve personally, but I know that Carolina embraced her deeply for all that she offered. From what I've heard and seen, she was absolutely amazing.

It makes you wonder how things like this can happen. Walking back from the chancellor's 3:00 address yesterday, two thoughts kept running through my mind: how terrible it was, and how something so terrible could happen to someone so incredible. I mean what governs life and death anyway? What allows someone beautiful to be killed while letting murderers continue to walk the streets of this earth? It just all seems so unfair.

I don't know that any single human life is worth more or less than any other human life, but Eve touched so many people. And in an instant, a horrendous act took her away. In body, she is now gone, but I have a feeling that her visions, her impact, and her spirit will remain for a very long time. This was evident in the faces of so many yesterday.

May she rest in peace.

Death, it seems, has a way of bringing people together. And yesterday, I was reminded of the book "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. At one point in the story, a man is trying to teach the protagonist, Eddie, a lesson about death. He explains: " 'Fairness,' he said, 'does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young.' " Later, he discusses why others gather when someone dies, and he states, "It is because the human spirit knows deep down that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed."

I think it is that, but it is also more. We want to remember. When someone dies, it reminds us of just how precious and transient life here truly is. We remember that any of us can be taken at any moment. And while I don't believe we should live our lives in constant fear, or that we should fear death at all, I do believe that we should realize just how miraculous it is that we are alive each day. And when someone as great as Eve dies, we are reminded of how we should be always thankful for the people who have come into our lives and made us aspire to be better people.

With that said, I just want to add that I'm so incredibly thankful for everyone who has impacted me in any way the past 19 years. I would not be who I am without you. We're not going to be here forever. I'm so grateful that we've crossed paths.

And to anyone who has lost someone close to you, especially the friends and family of Eve: may you receive the solace and the answers to your pain and your questions.

It's time for a welcome back for me, I suppose.  It's definitely been a while since I've lasted posted on here.  I was reading back through some of my stuff from last year, and I was amazed by how much has changed since then.  Yet at the same time, old feelings came flooding back just sifting through the pages of my thoughts. 

I supposed that to try to fill in all of the space between when I last wrote and now would be a daunting task, so I'll just say that college has been pretty good for me so far.  I mean it's had ups and downs, but overalls, there have been a lot more ups then downs. 

Last year, after getting waitlisted at Brown, I thought UNC would still be a good school to go to, but it just wasn't what I had envisioned.  I was excited about UNC, just not like I would have been if I was headed up to Rhode Island.  But I can honestly say that I think things worked out as they were supposed to.  I really like UNC.  I've grown up as a Carolina fan, so it's really great to be a student here.  And, I like that I'm only an hour and a half from home.  That's been a big surprise.  I thought that would bug me, but it's turned out really well.  While I'm here, I feel far enough away, yet when I want to go home for the weekend, it's easy to do. 

I think you learn a lot about yourself, your personality, and your character when you're making new friends.  College has been a learning experience for me thus far.

Well I definitely plan on trying to write here more regularly from now on.  I miss it.  I was reminded of how much I miss it when one of my friends showed me his blog that he'd started last night.  So here I am.