After my junior year in college, I decided to stay in Boston for the summer. One of my roommates also stayed in town, and then we found two new roommates for the summer. One of them became a pretty decent friend of ours and hung out with us throughout the summer. Years later, I found out that she died of cancer. I still remember the summer of ‘94 pretty vividly. And August and Everything After was our friend’s favorite album. I could tell by the way she sang along to those songs that the music was giving her life.

“My friend assures me, ‘It's all or nothing.’ I am not worried. I am not overly concerned.”