Saturday morning, when I woke up and checked my facebook (what else is a college student supposed to do?), I found a message from one of my friends back at Clark, telling me that one of our good mutual friends had passed away on. I want to take a little time to remember her.
I first met Marika Warden freshman year of college. I had seen her around first semester, but we never really met until second semester, through mutual friends. However, we became very close, very fast. Marika was always so full of life and happy, despite the fact that much of her senior year of high school had been spent battling leukemia. In fact, she often found a sense of humor with her disease. She once complained to me about how unfair it was that she was diagnosed two weeks after her 18th birthday, making her ineligible for the Make a Wish Foundation.
We partied hard together, too hard sometimes, went on a real clusterfuck of a spring break together, and hung out all the time. We were always giving the other advice on guys. Whenever I was giving a tour to perspective students and needed a room to show off, she would always be the first to volunteer. Our final time together was sadly hurried, she had needed to go home a little earlier than expected to be with her family. However, we both assumed that we would be seeing a lot of each other once sophomore year started. Over the summer, however, she decided to transfer to Ithaca College to be closer her family and because she liked the hospitals up there. But we both promised the other that we would visit each other during the school year.
We never saw each other in person again. Over that same summer, she relapsed and had to take the entire school year off to fight leukemia all over again. We stayed in touch, sometimes sporadically, sometimes frequently, depending on how healthy she was and how busy I was. The cancer went into remission again and we all hoped that she would finally be able to get her life back on track.
Sadly, the cancer returned for a third and final time the summer of 2010. She tried to visit campus, but always was getting sick. I wanted to visit her over winter break, but work and Snowpocalypse kept getting in the way. But whenever we spoke, she was always optimistic and upbeat, she was looking forward to starting a nursing program in Australia, a country which she loved, both for its natural beauty and for its men.
We are always reminded when a death of someone we love occurs that life is short and precious, and then we quickly forget that lesson. That is why death needs to keep reminding us, again and again. If you have a friend or family member who you have been putting off seeing for whatever reason, whether they are sick or healthy, call them up and plan something together soon, because there is no guarantee that either of you will be around tomorrow.
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