I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about my friends and family and I've realized that I've been losing so many people in my life. This goes for friends, family, peers, acquaintances, and others. I've lost a friend already this year, as she passed away. People don't always realize that they don't know what they have until it's gone.

The recent tragedy at OSU made me think about this even more, as so many of my friends and my boyfriend go to school there. When I first heard about it, I didn't think that it could be so close to them. I was very VERY wrong. It was closer to them than I would have liked. If anything would have happened to any of them, I don't know how I would handle my emotions and actions. It definitely doesn't help that I'm also 3 hours away from all of the people that I love at OSU. Make sure to tell everyone you love them.

I've had to do a lot of thinking lately about a hard topic for me. My horse is the closest thing to a sibling for me, as I'm an only child. I spend most of my time at home taking care of him. I've been thinking a lot about what would I have to do when he gets too old or he's in too much pain. The idea of saying goodbye to him, I realize, is one of the hardest things for me to think about.

I'm almost 20 years old. As I get older, so does my family. I realize that we're not going to live forever and the thought of saying goodbye to any more family members is going to tear me apart. It sits in the back of my mind and every once in a while, it comes back and it's all I can think about.

There's a lot of times when I'm not always the nicest to everyone and I know that they're not the nicest to me. I think I've begun to realize that I need to cherish everyone that I know, my friends, my family, as well as my boyfriend. Please, make sure to tell those close you that you love them. You never know when you're last chance to be with them will be.