A restaurant manager. A graduate student. An 8-year-old boy who just wanted peace. Three young individuals robbed of their lives.

Dead.

The tragic fates of three innocent bystanders at the Boston Marathon is a stunning reminder that at at any given moment of any given day, someone’s life can senselessly be taken away.

Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, and Lü Lingzi had chosen pathways in life that would have provided them with the opportunities for brighter futures. However, they will never realize their full potentials because they have been murdered.

These three victims were ordinary people, just like you. They had families, just like you. They had hopes and dreams, just like you.

The only only real difference between you and them is that you are still alive.

What happened in Boston could have happened anywhere. The fact that it happened on the other side of the country causes many people on the West Coast the feel less alarmed for their personal safety but, in reality, they are still at as much of a risk of a terrorist attack as the people present at the Boston Marathon were.

People see horrendous events taking place far away from their communities and, because they are not personally impacted, they think, “This will never happen to me. These kind of things only happen to other people, but not to me.”

Did the 13 individuals at Columbine High School think that? Did the 2977 victims of 9/11 think that? Did the 32 people at Virginia Tech, or the 12 in Aurora, Colo., or the 26 at Sandy Hook Elementary School think that?

These events could have taken place at Carlmont. We could have been the numbers that represented the very worst of humanity, or should I say, inhumanity.

We could have been the ones who died.

There is nothing special about us that protects us from being killed by someone. Although we like to maintain such a mentality, it is imperative that we realize that we are all mortal and that nobody is safe from death.

With that said, people shouldn’t live in fear. Rather, they should always remind themselves that life is a gift and that they should be thankful for every moment of it because they never know when their time will come.

Don’t put off what you want to do for later. You never know what hand will be dealt to you by life, and it would be awfully tragic if you waited too long to make something of the limited time that you do have.