Last week, a close friend of mine lost a long battle to cancer. Matt was 21.

Many 21 year olds are concerned with cramming for midterms, searching for summer internships and jobs and worrying about how many hours to take next semester to graduate on time; Matt worried about life.

He was concerned with his life and that he got to experience everything he wanted to. Matt eased his pain by killing time, not letting time kill him.

When he found out he had cancer, Matt took time off of school to do some things he wanted to do with his life.

He tried to sneak into the Super Bowl, he went to Mardi Gras, he rebuilt a motorcycle with his father and he toured Europe with friends who were studying abroad. He tried to go back to school so he would be closer to friends.

No matter what Matt did, he always did things with friends; people that were important to him. Matt wrote a letter in September, stating he knew his time was running out and fast. I would like to share some of his letter with you.

“So every day, every minute is vital to me. The most mundane things are breaths of fresh air. The things that most people take for granted but shouldn’t – a kiss, a pudding fight, a good long walk or an intriguing conversation – are now intensely important to me. And I think they should be important to everyone. The fact that I know I won’t be able to experience these things make them achingly more important to me, and they make me desperate to achieve them one more time.”

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. Too many times we get caught up in things that we think are important; we don’t stop and appreciate the smaller things in life.

Yes, I know that’s a clich. Friendships are important, not GPAs; good memories with good people are important. Those are the things you are going to remember in 25 years, not the importance of taking 21 hours to graduate a little early.

Matt also wrote that “life is a ridiculous, tragic disaster, but it’s the only thing we have. So don’t let it lie by the wayside in pursuit of crap that’s barely important. People are the most important resource and so are the relationships built with them.”

So if you find me in 25 years and you ask me what I remember from college, it will the happy times I have spent here.

I will remember the random Sunday snowball fight outside of Thomas Hall and across half of campus with John, I will remember going to lunch every Tuesday and most Thursdays with Julie. I will remember the 2 a.m. drives with Ryan through the country to see the countless stars, a sight that is not normal for my Chicago suburban home.

I am not going to remember how much work I have to do in the next two weeks. I am not going to remember deciding what classes to take next semester. Please notice that all my memories have occurred with people that I care about, and are not about the midterm that I have next week.