Loss is tragically beautiful, and in life, it is inevitable, and it catches us when we least expect it. It turns our world upside down and creates a hole in our universe. We spend the days doing our best to find our way around this gaping hole, and oftentimes at night, we fall into it, spiraling in emotions and confusion and getting tangled up in hatred and loneliness.

Losing someone close to you hits hard and is something that becomes part of you. You never learn how to get over it and move on, you just learn how to navigate around the vast hole that is their absence. The only thing that can be seen as normal when dealing with the grief of losing someone is that suddenly, without any intuition, everything is changed.

There is something so inherently unfair about losing someone unexpectedly. When they are gone, the grief moves in. But there can be a beauty found in this grief. The astonishing beauty that can be found in grief is clarity.

The weekend before finals week, I was swamped with tests I needed to study for and papers I needed to write, but I found myself sitting on the bank of a pond surrounded by my best friends. As we walked around the pond laughing, I realized that we take these small experiences and moments for granted. We assume we have a lifetime to do these things and a lifetime to spend with the people around us.

Through these losses, we learn to gravitate towards joy and seek it actively, live every day like it may be our last, and hug the ones around us a little tighter. We cannot hand-pick life's blessings and beauty without keeping our hearts open to pain and suffering. We cannot be consumed with pleasing people and making sure every plan and detail of life works out like we want. It is comforting to remember that God is our father, and when one of his children dies, it grieves him. He is grieving with us.