There are weeks in a person’s life that you don’t want to experience. For anyone who knew Brittany Mariani and Rich Royster this has been one of those weeks. By now you must have read what has happened to our fellow scholars, so we’re not going to make you read it again in this editorial.
Honoring these two students will be a saddening task for the university, but one that will be worthwhile to us all. Proved by the high number of comments made on Facebook, Twitter and already around the CCSU campus it was obvious that the two were great friends to everyone they met and their time with all of us certainly came to an end too soon.
Our university has already handled this ordeal remarkably well. They notified the student body in a timely fashion and have certainly made all the right moves in keeping counseling available for anyone who needs it. It’s also been confirmed that they will appropriately conduct a memorial for the two. As a gesture to the families and friends of these two, the attendance to this should be high. When we lose our fellow classmates we have to show that we aren’t going to forget them, whether we personally knew them or not.
It’s been made clear by those that knew Royster that he was a kind and caring individual. If he could have a voice at this moment in time he would be asking us to not forget about his girlfriend while he is receiving vast amounts of attention.
While Royster certainly deserves attention after this tragedy, it’s easy to see how he could be remembered for slightly longer than Mariani. The football team will likely play their next season in his name and might even put his number on their helmets or some other visible location. There will be those who might donate money to the football team in his name. Even though these are very nice gestures and we aren’t discouraging them, we shouldn’t forget that these two were loved members of a family before anything else.
The families of these individuals won’t ever forget this and it’s likely none of us can understand what they are feeling. Losing a child has to be the toughest thing that any parent can face. We send our deepest condolences to the families involved in this tragedy.
Royster’s future was undoubtedly off of the football field. It’s important to acknowledge that in Royster and Mariani were two smart academic minds, described by their psychology professors as positive, cheerful and engaging students with great potential to do good in this world, were lost on Saturday morning.
After the CCSU-held memorial, it’s possible that Mariani won’t be remembered for as long as she should be by the CCSU community. People still remember UConn football player Jasper Howard a great deal after he was murdered, but it might not be so if he weren’t in a position of celebrity like he was. A tragedy as close to home as this should, at the very least, make us all stop for a moment and reflect on what happens around us.
Unfortunately, it usually takes a tragic event for most of us to realize how short and unexpected life can be. Our two fellow students clearly had much to live for and their time was cut far too short. The bright side of any event like this, and we’ll admit there is barely any, is that we can take this as a learning experience. Young, lively and energetic college students might lose sight that they aren’t invincible and that no one is going to live forever. In turn, we should all make the most of our time to live the best possible life each of us can.