Eve Marie Carson - Her Inspiration Lives On

This undated photo of Eve Carson, student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was released by the university Thursday, March 6, 2008. Police Thursday identified a young woman found shot dead in a Chapel Hill, N.C., residential neighborhood as Carson, 22, of Athens, Ga. Authorities had no suspects in her death. (AP Photo/Courtesy of UNC, Jim Stratford)

Eve Maria Carson, 22, was a senior and the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But that is just a sliver of information about this young beautiful girl whose life was ended tragically in, what police call, a "random crime." [ North Carolina Student President Killed ]

Hailing from Athens, Georgia, she was a Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow. She had been taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates. She was a premed student, majoring in political science and biology, while teaching science at a Chapel Hill elementary school. She studied abroad in Cuba and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program.

Yes, indeed, this young woman's future bore all signs of being not just your average adult in the world.

But now she is dead, her promising life ended when someone shot her several times and including at least once in the head, according to police. So police call this a "random crime" and I can imagine that term not bringing much comfort to the friends who will miss her and the family who will mourn her.

Why do the brightest stars seem to extinguish early? This young beautiful lady, with so much potential ahead of her was already living today as if she somehow knew not to waste her time in the present. I admire this a great deal and take this as a lesson in my own life.

So even in her death, I hope she can somehow continue to benefit others about the virtues of living in the now. She was an angel, perhaps. Here to teach us to embrace life now and live as fulfilling a life as possible with what we have today.

My heart goes out to her family and the close friends who mourn Eve Maria Carson. I mourn this loss as well; I mourn her intention upon the world that was lost so early. I am saddened by any fear or pain she may have felt during her last minutes but pray that it's been transmuted for a greater good.

And I want her spirit to know that she has touched me. I will never forget the message that her life has taught me. Forever printed upon my heart, I will remember that my potential can be exercised today. I will remember, thanks to Eve Marie Carson, that my intention for tomorrow may never be realized but that I can continue living in the present as if it will be. And in knowing that, I can embrace my life with verve.

Like she did.

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