Meg.

There are a special kind of people in the world - the kind that defy categorization. The kind who are absolutely full of life in every sense of the word - cheerful and giving, active and outgoing. The kind who are distinct and special and unorthodox and wonderful in a way that nobody else can be. The kind who are just - for lack of a better word - good.

Meg Charlop was one of those people. Quirky, wonderful - ever cheerful, always a joy to be around.

It’s weird. The other day I was thinking about the adult that I’ve become. I’d had a conversation with a friend who was trying to sum up the way that I teach, and words kept popping up that reminded me of Meg’s approach to the world. I made a mental note to mention this to Meg the next time I saw her. I figured she’d appreciate that somehow her ways had rubbed off on me. I filed it away, of course, because I didn’t think that I wouldn’t somehow get the chance to tell her how I actually, no-fooling feel her influence on my life at some point down the line.

Because when there are those special people in the world - the kind who are that kind of wonderful and that unique - you don’t expect that they’ll be taken from us. You don’t think that somehow they won’t be there, because they shouldn’t. The world just shouldn’t exist without them.

But that’s not how things go, is it?