Death of a student

I found out late last night via email that one of my UTD poetry students from last semester passed away very suddenly on February 5th. he was 30 years old, born on the same exact date as my best friend from childhood. The details were somewhat sketchy "acquired a rare disease which he could not overcome" and "gone to be with the Lord." I am in shock over this. In early January, he was traveling through China visiting with college students and universities, jumping head on into his position as Director of Asian Studies, a new and pioneering program, at a small college in Dallas. That this could of all happened so quickly is very hard to fathom. He was my most difficult student in every sense - but when we made the occasional connection and could see eye to eye, it made everything else totally worth it.