Good and bad

Yesterday was one of those days where you get news that you keep thinking about.

The good news first: one of my research students, someone I co-authored a paper with, got a job more or less in her field (after working at other places off and on). She's now working for the USDA. I don't know the exact nature of her position because I heard it second-hand from a colleague, but apparently it's a position with some kind of a field component because he mentioned her experience with heavy machinery (tractors) helped her get the job.

So that was good news; we consider it a success every time one of our graduates gets a job in their field.

The bad news, and the one I keep dwelling on a little, is this: a couple weeks ago, a hotel clerk was murdered. I kept looking when they showed his photo on the television, thinking, "He looks familiar. Could I have met him somewhere?" Then my colleague reminded me: he was one of our graduates. And suddenly I remembered: he was one of my ecology students several summers ago. I even remember what he did his research project over. And now I feel sad. They described him as "a very pleasant person with a kind word for everyone" on the news by way of eulogization, and yes, that is a correct assessment. I remember he worked at a bank here in town when he was a student. I remember him helping his colleagues in lab. And it's just kind of weird and crummy and sad in the same way that it was last fall when we had the student die suddenly.

They have arrested two of the three people suspected in his death and I guess are tracking down the third. I guess I'm glad the people are being brought to justice but this is one of those cases where it doesn't really fix things - it's not like an embezzlement case (another one of which is in the news also today) where maybe you can make the person pay back the money. Arresting and trying the alleged murderers won't bring the guy back. HOPEFULLY it will stop someone else from doing similar, I don't know.

Apparently the motive was robbery. And either something went wrong (pretty much everyone is taught that you give a would-be robber the cash, I think, in jobs like that) or the people decided they didn't want to leave a witness who could report on them....and so greed and selfishness end a life, and change several others. (I cannot remember if he was married or had children; I think I remember him mentioning his mother and maybe a sister.) Everyone has someone who cares about them, and so their loss leaves a hole. (Even for someone like me - I'm reflecting on this and feeling sad about a student that I only really knew for about two months).

Ugh. People. I understand needing money or even wanting money, but that is NOT the way to go about getting it.