All my Love to NIU
When I first heard the tragic news my first response - Are my friends alive? Never in my life did I ever conceive the possibility that I would ever have to think those four words. When the same thing happened at Virginia Tech I thought, oh, this will never happen to me or my friends. How wrong could I have been?
I left for work around four o'clock and caught a glimpse of another school shooting on my living room T.V. Little did I know that it was a school so close to home. While in the car I heard the breaking news from a local radio station and immediately got on my cell to contact the people that I know there. My heart dropped when no one picked up their phones and I was taken straight to voicemail. I sat in my car for the next 15 minutes, not caring that I would be late for work when one of my friends finally called me back. He was alive. Over the next couple hours I was on my cell going back and forth between friends and family trying to determine if everyone was alright, much to the annoyance of my supervisor. Once I heard the voice of my best friend on the phone, I walked calmly to the bathroom and broke down with relief.
I may not be a student at NIU but I have friends that go to there and I have met many people through those friends. I have been to the campus several times to visit with them and every time I had visited I always felt welcomed and at home.
It is hard to understand what goes through a someone's mind that makes them do these horrible and atrocious deeds. You ask yourself why would anyone ever want to kill someone in cold blood. We may never have an answer to those questions. What I hope everyone focuses on these next few days is not on the "why" but rather on the lives of the families and friends of the people who were directly involved with the shootings and the loss of their loved ones.
To my friends, you know who you are, I love you guys.
I left for work around four o'clock and caught a glimpse of another school shooting on my living room T.V. Little did I know that it was a school so close to home. While in the car I heard the breaking news from a local radio station and immediately got on my cell to contact the people that I know there. My heart dropped when no one picked up their phones and I was taken straight to voicemail. I sat in my car for the next 15 minutes, not caring that I would be late for work when one of my friends finally called me back. He was alive. Over the next couple hours I was on my cell going back and forth between friends and family trying to determine if everyone was alright, much to the annoyance of my supervisor. Once I heard the voice of my best friend on the phone, I walked calmly to the bathroom and broke down with relief.
I may not be a student at NIU but I have friends that go to there and I have met many people through those friends. I have been to the campus several times to visit with them and every time I had visited I always felt welcomed and at home.
It is hard to understand what goes through a someone's mind that makes them do these horrible and atrocious deeds. You ask yourself why would anyone ever want to kill someone in cold blood. We may never have an answer to those questions. What I hope everyone focuses on these next few days is not on the "why" but rather on the lives of the families and friends of the people who were directly involved with the shootings and the loss of their loved ones.
To my friends, you know who you are, I love you guys.