Sometimes at night I find myself staring into the abyss, parading as the white popcorn ceiling above my head. As the hours trickle away, my mind bubbles into a whirlpool with images and dates and lists. At 23, I’m kind of neurotic, always thinking six weeks ahead of my present. I’m racing against an invisible clock. I haven’t always been like this. When I was 16, three events culminated in a matter of four months and permanently changed my outlook on life and the longevity of it, or sometimes lack thereof.

Introduction: To Madison Yauger, flowers and butterflies go together like biscuits and jam. Her family has always thrived in the garden, but after her grandfather passed away, butterflies began to mean a little something more.

As soon as my hand left the table, all 20 lbs. of me crashed landed on the scratchy carpet, but I didn’t cry. I leaned into my rolls of baby fat, pulled myself up and took a wobbly step. After that moment, I never went back to crawling. I was determined to walk.

Time is a funny little mistress. You’re attached to it, but it can disappear without warning. Some days, weeks, and months feel begrudgingly long, with no end in sight. And then a year disappears right before your eyes. Then two. Then three. They fall away with reckless abandon.

Courage is a word I've thought a lot about in my life. It's a concept I've placed such merit in, through witnessing it in others, I got it permanently placed on my body. For me, it serves as a reminder, to have courage, to seek it with others and to demonstrate courage when others cannot.

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012, is a date that stands alone in the minds of students and faculty at Episcopal School of Jacksonville. It’s the day that one of the safest schools in Jacksonville became a living nightmare.

Every year it comes. Valentine’s Day. Some people love it. Some people dread it. Some people think it’s a holiday invented by Hallmark…they could very well be right. But at the end of the day, it’s just supposed to be a time to really celebrate the people in your life that you care about, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

We live in a world where bad things happen every day. People do horrible, unspeakable things to one another. They kill one another. They dehumanize one another. Humans, just like any other species have learned to adapt over time in order to survive. Many accept that it’s a dog eat dog world, and let themselves become hardened to the realities of life rather than dealing with their emotions and trying to make a change. 

Located in Pawley’s Island, Litchfield isn’t a glamorous beach vacation spot. But it is a community, and the people that have been coming here for as long as we have, have begun to know one another. The same restaurants every summer, the same shops, the same grocery stores: it’s a home away from home if I’ve ever known one.

We should at least acknowledge the Godly acts that they perform everyday; whether it be leading a blind man across the street, detecting a bomb and saving lives, or simply snuggling up to a rank version of ourselves and loving us when we seem unlovable.