My roommate in college was like this real type-A, wake up early and crush it all day long type of dude. I was very much the opposite, struggling through the deeper pits of depression, literally just trying to do what I could day in and day out to pass time and keep myself alive sometimes.

But not Mark. Mark woke up every day at 5:30am and would hit the streets for a 10 mile run. He often woke up to his alarm and would literally yell out “whoo!” or something like that. It woke me up sometimes, but other times I was already up from the day before so I didn’t care.

Mark got straight A’s in his environmental engineering curriculum, I was happy to pull C’s in my bullshit anthropology major. Mark worked a job on campus, volunteered at the food shelter, and had a weekly column in the school newspaper. I spent a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook, and playing Xbox games.

Mark graduated with a few job offers already, eventually taking an entry-level job as some field tech for an energy company, making like 80 or 90K to start. I moved home and ate mac and cheese for a really long time after graduating.

Mark passed away two years ago, and I’m still here. Life isn’t always fair.