Meg has an interesting post about hearing that someone she knew a while back passed away. When I was in high school I played a lot of pool. There was this one guy who was really good, always taking my money. He taught me a lot. Shortly before I left for college we played and I won, he owed me twenty bucks. While at school, I happened to get an IM from a mutual aquaintance and I said jokingly that he should remind Mike about the money he owed me. That was when he told me Mike had died in a car accident. He couldn't have been more than 18 years old.
I had another friend who graduated high school a year or so ahead of me. He was in the Pentagon on 9-11, but got out safe. That weekend he died in a car accident. When it's your time, it's your time.
It's strange how in both cases I wasn't extremely close to either person, but it reminds you of your own mortality. Life works in strange ways sometimes.
And on that depressing note, I'm out. Leave your stories if you'd like.