Worry less. Laugh more.

I'm working on a longer pool related post that needs some serious editing, but in the meantime, I just wanted to blog about my dear friend Jennifer. Jennifer was one of my best friends in college, who died in an accident last year. (I want to say unexpected or tragic, but isn't that just the nature of accidents?).

After college, we drifted apart, wrote the occasional birthday email (how did she always remember mine?), saw each other at weddings, and then a year or so before her accident reconnected on a more regular basis on facebook. At the time of her accident, her husband posted an update on her status that "it could be worse." I took that to mean she would be okay, and for some reason expected that if anything important happened, facebook would be sure to let me know. It was two months later that I received a voicemail from a mutual friend saying there was something I should know, and I raced home to facebook to read all the updates that hadn't made my news feed...and that Jenn had been gone for a couple of months.

Its amazing how some people become so core to who we are, even though your lives move off into entirely different directions. In the moment that I realized the truth, my knees gave way, it was so startling. I've lost friends before...but they all had a more fragile grasp on life, somehow it wasn't surprising. But Jenn was so strong and passionate about living, it just didn't/doesn't make sense.

The anniversary of her accident is coming up in a few weeks. Her family has organized a memorial jazz concert entitled "Worry less. Laugh more." which has been the theme of all the events in her memory.

As I think about the past year, I realize that I have worried more, and laughed less. The laughing part, I'm not that bad at, but the worrying gets way too much of my time. So, Jenn, this is just to let you know that I'm thinking of you, and this year I promise: Worry less, laugh more. Miss you.