Marina Keegan: "The Opposite of Loneliness"

I feel like I'm late on this wonderful essay. Maybe I'm not, but either way, I have the feeling Marina wouldn't want me to feel that way. So I won't.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, Marina Keegan wrote a beautiful essay reflecting on her time at Yale and what lays ahead of her. A week ago, she was killed in a car accident. Maybe the tragedy adds strength to her words. But the words are strong enough on their own. It's a fantastic piece of writing that's smart, funny, and sincere all at the same time. I can't help but feel that given more time, Marina would have been a voice of her generation and a voice that many generations could relate to. 

Read the full essay here: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/may/27/keegan-opposite-loneliness/ 

Here are two excerpts that resonated with me:

"We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement."

"Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it; already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck."

Hopefully you've reached many, the way you've reached me. Thank you for the gift, Marina.