The Young Woman Who Was The Change She Wanted To See In The World
I’ve been reading the words of Marina Keegan, a young woman from my hometown who died over the weekend. She had just graduated from Yale and had a writing job waiting for her at The New Yorker. I’ve got one word to describe Marina: phenomenal.
She cared about people, about changing the world, about community, about doing good, about writing from the heart, about living every minute she was alive.
God, we need more people like her. To think there is one less, gets me all choked up.
If you haven’t read her last essay written for the Yale Daily News, here it is. It’s called The Opposite of Loneliness. Every word, phrase, sentence speaks to me. Another example that one does not have to be old to be wise.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/may/27/keegan-opposite-loneliness/
Thanks, Giulietta
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Giulietta, I’m choked up with you. How sad that a young woman of such potential (and who had obviously already achieved a great deal) is gone. It’s so eerie that at age 22 she was already sometimes suffering from the feeling that it was too late to embark on making an important contribution to the world. I love the tribute you made to her with the title of this blog post.
Hi Milli,
I appreciate you taking the time to come on over and read her loving essay.
It’s strange she wrote that essay at 22 because I had a similar feeling at 22 after graduating from college or maybe it’s more the norm. Someone gave me the idea that at 22 I was somehow washed up. I used to look in the mirror and see all these wrinkles on my face that clearly were not there.
It took me another 5 years to realize what Marina said, “that we are still young.”
We do such bizarre things to young people, things that do not help any of us.
I’ve been trying ever since to just start things because I can and that age doesn’t matter. I meet so many people who feel that at the young age of even 35 they have to accept wherever they are in life.
How can we stop that?
Thanks! G.
So sad to lose such good young people, just heartbreaking reading her essay and thinking that she is gone.
Hi Lou,
Someone who got involved and did good and lived it up. It takes courage to do that. She’s inspired me to do even more …
Thanks for stopping in. G.
you are right we need more good people
thanks for writing about her
Farouk,
I’m glad so many people can read her wise words. Thanks, G.