When the Teacher Becomes the Pupil: Lessons Derived from a Terminally Ill Student

Abstract

Death evokes reflection. It is one of the few times in life that give us cause to pause and consider the brevity of life, even deliberate over its meaning. When someone we care about dies, we naturally reflect on how their life touched us and what contributions they unknowingly offered. Feelings of loss and sadness are part of this difficult process. The context of this reflection is a university setting, where I was supervising a student on her Honors project, when she became terminally ill and passed away during the task. I stopped to pause and reflect on this experience, deriving poignant lessons with the aim of sharing. I would like to begin my essay with a letter I wrote the morning after my Honors student died from a grueling battle with advanced breast cancer.