What a day…what a lesson

I wasn’t really sure if I would write my story of today as a post, but I cannot stop thinking about it and so…as I usually do, I write. When I got to work this morning I learned a co-worker was killed in a car accident last night.  This person had only worked in my building for one short month.  I did not work very closely with her at all…she was a teacher that walked by my desk on a daily basis. She was a person that I had short genericish conversations with.  She was a very sweet person from what I could tell and a very good teacher.  Now she is gone…she does not walk past my desk, we do not have genericish conversations anymore, and she no longer works in my building.  What I can’t seem to wrap my head around is the fact that I just spoke to her yesterday and today she no longer lives.  What I cannot wrap my head around is the hurt her parents, her family, her friends must be feeling. 

She was 24 years old and worked a normal day just like any of us, she was a 24 year old that went about her day normally not knowing it was her last…she could have been me, she could have been you.  And as I was finally letting this settle in my brain… settle in my heart, I was nearly in a car accident.  As if the untimely death of a young women wasn’t enough to make me appreciate every breath I take and every moment I live…apparently I needed to be smacked a little harder.  As I was driving home from work deep in thought about how I need to get the most out my life a car ran a red light and nearly t-boned me. Somehow I was quick enough or someone was watching out for me enough that I swerved literally within a hairs length and made it home safe.  I did not, however, make it home in the same condition I left in this morning.  Thanks to that sweet young coworker that I had genericish conversations with I now have a renewed outlook on life.  Her death is so tragic and sad that words cannot come close to doing it justice, but the simple lesson I learned from a near stranger deserved to be written: 

Live your life every single day as though it could be your last.