The Adventures of Alex: LOVE... Pass it on!

The last week has been pretty hard for me.

Not because I’ve been memorizing curriculum or putting on four consecutive days of a conference. It’s not because I’ve been teaching Texas A&M students that are older than me or sweating uncontrollably due to the Texas heat. I’m not more homesick than normal and my health is just fine.

But this week was different because it’s the first time that tragedy had hit so close to home.

Anna was a junior when I was a freshman in our 700-student high school. She was gorgeous, always smiling and seemed to always have the nicest friends. She was an awesome tennis player, football super-fan, student council member, community service volunteer, and extremely involved in extracurricular activities. Anna graduated as valedictorian of her class and went on to a great college and a prestigious graduate school for dentistry.

She did everything right. Anna took care of her body, stayed out of trouble, worked hard and pushed herself harder. She was that girl that everyone compared themselves to and that her family and friends adored.

I got word just a few days ago that Anna passed away after a sudden pulmonary embolism. Basically, no one had any idea that anything was wrong until she stopped breathing in her apartment.

Everything happened so fast and there was nothing the doctors could do. My whole community offered prayers and support, but it couldn’t counter the odds stacked against Anna.

This isn’t the first death I’ve coped with and to be honest, I wasn’t extremely close to Anna.

So why is this bothering me so much?

It could have been me…

I was in a lot of the clubs that Anna was in. I was friends with her little brother. Her parents are my dentists. My family is just like her family... She is only two years older than I am.

I’ll admit, I’ve been down in the dumps the past few days and I can’t get Anna out of my mind. I’ve been scared. I have been hurting so bad for her family. I’ve been thinking, “It’s so unfair that He took her.”

Faith isn’t an easy thing, but it gets you through situations like this. Faith that all things happen for a reason. Faith that the pain will lessen each day. Faith that there’s something way bigger than this.

What struck me most the past few days was a Facebook message that Anna’s brother sent to everyone who had joined her support group. He said, “Sometimes tragedy strikes us when we least expect it, and I really only have a few words of advice. Tell every person you love that you love them when you talk to them. If I could do anything, I would go back to the last conversation I had with Anna on Saturday and tell her I loved her 100 times. People keep telling me that I meant the world to her, and I wish and hope she knew I felt the same way about her.”

He words are eloquent and strong, but not a new revelation. We've heard them before. However, they took on new meaning this week. It could have been my sister. It could have been someone that I loved. I could have been me. What are the last words I said to those I love the most?

My point? Life isn’t fair. It’s not predictable. But it’s not our job to worry about it. It's a waste of life to wake up scared every morning.

My mom is one of the smartest people I know and she always used to tell my siblings and me, “You don’t have a limited amount of love.” She emphasized that inside each of us we have a free-flowing spring of it that will never run dry. So we should give that love freely and to anyone that we come into contact with.

Listen to the words of Anna’s brother. What are the last words you said to those who mean the most? Share your love with those closest to you TODAY! Never end a conversation without the words, “I love you” and mean them. Don’t wake up worried about the “what ifs.” Live each day by the “what cans.”

Anna’s story isn’t defined by how it ended. Neither will yours. So fill up the middle pages with LOVE.