Since I have been a student as SIUC, many fellow students have died; their lives ended too fast, too soon.

For many, these students are nothing more than faceless, unrecognizable names. For those who knew and loved them most, they represent voids that can never be filled, lives full of promise and potential never to be fulfilled.

But for all, their untimely deaths should send an important message:Life is too short to take for granted.

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This may sound clich and be something we have all heard before, but it is true.

Everyday we wake up and go about our normal, daily routines. We don’t stop to recognize and appreciate another day of fun, laughter, sunshine, family, friends, and all the other things that make life worth living.

Instead, we walk around with frowns on our faces, holding foolish grudges from months and even years ago, attempting to make everyone else’s day miserable because someone has made us mad.

We forget to tell our loved ones we love them before we hang up the phone, assuredly knowing we will speak with them again later. We go to sleep angry and upset with the people whom we care about and who care about us the most.

Even worse, we choose to sever relationships rather than settle minor differences. These things we are all guilty of.

No one wakes up in the morning thinking today may be their last or that with the setting or rising of the sun they may never again see or talk to their mother, daughter, father, son, friend, classmate etc. And why should we? We would drive ourselves crazy if we did.

Last week, another mother buried her daughter at 21. She will never have another opportunity to hug her and tell her how much she loves her. She will never cherish the happy memories of college graduation, marriage or childbirth.

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All she has left are the memories of “yesterday,” the 21 years of happiness and laughter spent, the good times, the bad.

As I write this I think not only of Angie, whom I barely knew, but saw frequently in passing, and Ayesha, the ray of sunshine and never ending source of laughter who was the epitome of how we should all live and treat others. But I also think of my cousin, who committed suicide at the age of 17, and for whom I was “too busy” to return a simple phone call.

Almost four years later, I still remember vividly where I was and what I was doing, all the reasons I put off picking up the phone. I never had the chance to speak with or see her again, and just a couple of days later I got the call saying she was dead. The neglect and regret overshadow the “why.”

Mark Twain once said, “The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.”

Yesterday students gathered to celebrate the life and memory of fellow classmate and friend, Angela Ervin. Today, I hope everyone remembers tomorrow is not promised and neither is the rest of the day. Cherish your family and friends while you have the chance, you never know when the opportunity will cease to exist.

Death is an uncertain and uncontrollable fate we all face. It is a fate that does not discriminate, no one knows when and whom he will strike next. But what is certain, is that single moment in time.