hmmm, where to start. I am a senior at the sunny University of Miami. I'm a psychology major and probably headed to law school. When I am not in class getting my money's worth, I am probably swimming, biking, running or inventing some insane new combination of all three. When my computer works with me, I gleefully download music legally through the happy people at Napster. I may also be facebooking although I am trying to quit.

When I walk through campus everyday, I see the same green palm trees, the same flock of white ibis and the same friendly faces. It is hard to comprehend that tommorow one of these friendly faces may not be there.

Every year from birth to my drive off to college, our family made the "Florida trip". Evey vacation we would visit one grandma in Tampa, the other grandparents in Boca and our family friends, the Watzmans in Orlando. Although the 20 hour road trip got quite tedious, I simply knew that we would always make the same trek and see the same family and friends.

Our first stop was at Grandma Jenny's house. She was always happy to see us and was in charge of some new project at Top of The World (the apartment complex she lived in) everytime we visited. In 2000, she has diagnosed with kidney cancer and had surgery to remove a kidney. Although she survived cancer, her health was never as strong and she could not live alone at Top of the World anymore.

Our second stop was Boca Raton. Here we visited my dad's parents Abe and Evelyn. In 1992, Evelyn died of colon cancer. She was always active in her community and provided love and support for my grandpa and our whole family. I have happy memories of her, but wish we could have shared more years together.

On our way back to Texas, we would make our final stop in Orlando to visit the Watzmans. This was one of my favorite stops because we would visit the other Jennifer. This Jennifer was a few years older than I was and swam on her community swim team. I was only a few years old and couldn't really swim at all yet, but I was eager to improve so I could be like Jennifer. Sadly, Jennifer died of Leukemia when she was only 8. I was even younger then, and thought that life was not very fair to take my friend when she was so young. Jennifer's parents wanted to make a difference in memory of their daughter. They started a swimming race in Orlando to raise money for Leukemia research that continues today.

I know if my grandmas were here today, they would be very proud of me for participating in the Texas 4000. I believe that if Jennifer were still here, she would be out there biking with me.