Yesterday was a tough day. Canisius lost one of their best educators and quite possibly their best faculty member. Dr. Justine Price passed away very suddenly yesterday.

Dr. Price was Ellie’s advisor, her guide through college, and her friend. She was young. There really is no explanation of why things like this can happen in life, but they do. They happen seemingly indiscriminately and unfairly, and always way too soon.

This event is tough to swallow and got me thinking quite a lot about life in general. Mostly, though, I've been stuck on one idea, fixated on one topic when so many other things whiz by in my head. I don't want to sound like I am brushing things off, but this is what I can't shake: I NEED to get healthy.

The human body is surprisingly resilient, but it seems to be able to critically fail at any second. The only thing we can do is get in the best health we can and maximize our chances of bouncing back when things go wrong. We owe it to ourselves, but more importantly we owe it to our friends and family. I would bet anything that if you took a step back and thought about how your health effects those around you, you probably wouldn't think so little of skipping a run or making poor food choices.

Some things are simply unavoidable and tragic. Dr. Price's passing was way too early in her life, when she had so much more to give. She taught Ellie to be proud of who you are, that you can do things you may not have thought you could do, that you can strive to be better and do better things. Let’s all learn from her lesson and be the best we can be. Let’s put aside any excuse for why we haven't, any future start dates we may have, and just do it now.