For Taylor

When I woke up yesterday and turned on the news I knew there would be bad news, there always seems to be. I knew someone's life would have ended, there would be wrecks, hot weather to talk about and probably some sort of update and footage on the latest move Britney Spears has made. But I didn't expect to see you on my television screen, and certainly not in this way. I don't understand what happened, or why someone would do this to you, other than there are just so many evil and greedy people out there. I've worked with a lot of summer interns over the last few years, and you were a great one. One of my fondest memories of you was one of my first memories of you. I'll never forget hearing my horrible, crap-tastic boss tell me how you fell asleep during a financial presentation. I learned a long time ago you should never walk past their offices right before they're going to "go over the numbers", and why they thought you would be interested in hearing them rehearse their presentation, or why it would be a great learning experience for you is beyond me. You have no idea how hilarious we found that story to be - primarily because ALL of us had a tough time listening to these presentations and we ALL wanted to sleep through them. You probably didn't know we talked about you year round, but every Monday those same bosses would talk about the score of your football game, and how well you did. Having you come in every summer was a fresh breath of air in a stale workplace. It was nice to hear about school, how you were coming along with your classes, and everyone was always so impressed with how nicely you dressed and carried yourself in a workplace full of trolls. It was also sad to see you go at the end of each summer, another sign that life in our boring office world never ended but you were off to new adventures.

And I don't understand violence and I don't understand guns, and I don't understand people with guns and I don't understand evil. I don't think it's fair that your life is over so early, and for what? Maybe some money? I wish after every news story, every article out there about you on the 'net right now that they would follow it with "and he was a good kid", because I don't think that message gets across. They talk about your achievements in sports, the facts they know about the shooting, the fact that it was on a campus, but they don't point out that you were a good kid, and they should. It's just all so sad, and so incredibly unnecessary, and if I really could have made one wish that 100% would have come true when I blew out my candles yesterday it would have been for that news story to have never happened and been replaced with more celebrity bathroom sightings.

RIP, Taylor.