Yale Student Killed Days After Graduation

Marina Keegan had her entire life to look forward to, but her dreams were cut short on Saturday afternoon.

According to the Huffington Post, Marina, 22, died after the car her boyfriend Michael Gocksch was driving flipped over. Marina was pronounced at the scene of the accident, but her boyfriend was transported to the hospital and is in stable condition.

Marina had just graduated from Yale with a degree in writing and already landed a job working for The New Yorker. One of her last pieces of writing was just published by the Yale Daily News and in it she shared her thoughts about the future:

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.

For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it. If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I’d say that’s how I feel at Yale. How I feel right now. Here. With all of you. In love, impressed, humbled, scared. And we don’t have to lose that.

Marina Keegan was killed in a car wreck days after graduating from Yale.