The unfortunate and accidental death of a fellow student at my university from slipping and falling on ice got me thinking about life and death.

It's haunting to think one wrong move, one simple step can determine one's fate. That incident could have happened to anyone: student, faculty or visitor. They wouldn't needed to have been that student to for it to happen to them.

People slip and fall all the time, and not always when the weather is icy. I've seen students slip on wet brick, fall off their skateboards, and trip walking up stairs. All of them ended up alright.

When people try to avoid slipping on ice, slipping in general, they're not thinking about death. Slipping is viewed as a trivial matter and they're only making an attempt to avoid falling. Death doesn't cross their mind — it's not considered a viable outcome. It seems too extreme to make sense.

But death happens. A melancholy reminder that life is fleeting and finite. Death rides on our heels, hides in our rear view mirrors, ghosts through our lives. We don't get the option to live forever or to get a second chance at life. We get one shot. Humans: we're too fragile for our own good.

The incident breaks my heart, especially knowing that it resulted from such a commonplace occurrence. A life and so much potential lost all because the ground decided to succumb to the winter weather and freeze.