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.