"I hold your doctrine of Memento Mori, and were an epitaph to be my story, I'd say, 'My name is Ryan, and I loved people by trying to break the power of shame. I hope I did right by my family in the end.'"

I wrote these words a little over a year ago as part of a 57-page English paper that related all the work of Robert Frost to my life, as the epitaph of what will go on my gravestone. Those words were true then, but, in the context of my life, it's almost like a different person had spoken them, and recent events have left me grasping not only the mission of my life's work but how to fulfill that mission.