My Classmate is Missing, Presumed Drowned

So, A ended up calling me to pick him up last night. Same routine. Before we fell asleep, I told him (and I'm not sure if he quite remembers because he was half drunk and asleep) but that I know that I want to be with him, and that I know that he has stuff to figure out for himself, but that I'll wait for him.

Today, we had breakfast on the harbor and futzed around. I just got home and read my email. It seems that one of my classmates went home for Spring Break, got drunk, and fell into the ocean. He's missing now, but the search for him has been called off. I'm in a bit of shock.

I didn't know the guy THAT well, but we have a lot of mutual friends, and I've hung out with him a couple of times. He always seemed like a good guy, and he was very, very young - - just 22, the paper said, just out of undergrad, into grad school, with a great career ahead of him. It is very tragic.

It also makes me think about a re-occuring thought that I've had, which is how my department would respond if I got killed while in Israel. Most of my department might be described as anti-Israel, some quite strongly so. I know it is a morbid thought. We're such a big department, and everyone is competitive and gossipy. It makes me wonder. My poor classmate. I can't believe that this happened.