Refreshed Memories
Today was the first day in over a month I had an opportunity to walk across campus instead of bike due to the somewhat pleasant rain we’re experiencing (I now live off campus here at Virginia Tech). As I crossed the Drillfield with my umbrella in hand amidst the dismal gray I looked around at other students that passed me. It is hard to convey the feelings in words, but I saw before me normalcy. I saw students headed to class, talking on their cell phones or to friends, smiling faces or stern looks alike- seeing all of this I suddenly realized that I hadn’t thought about the 4/16 shooting in a while. It has been a year and a half since the overbearing tragedy that fell upon our community and I finally felt normal here to the point that I didn’t even think about the need to be ‘normal’. I’m just a college student and this is my college-nothing out of the ordinary. It was a good feeling and I smiled.
Three hours later I was eating lunch with two of my friends when one of them received a text message on her phone. She had a nervous look on her face and showed us the text from her friend who doesn’t go to Tech: “Are you ok? I heard there were gunshots on campus”.
It all came back.
Walking out of the classroom to a chorus of police sirens. Parked police cars in front of a dorm. Seeing dozens of people screaming and running up stairs towards me from the Drillfield with extremely frightened faces. The campus-wide alarms, more sirens, taking 20 tries to call home to say I was ok, lockdown, the rumors, the guesses, the news of 2-12-20-33 dead and dozens more wounded. The unknown, the grief, the pain, the loss. The encroaching media, the very public blog. The year and a half afterward.
It all came back.
Within another minute I got a text from the police: “Virginia Tech Emergency Notification: Police are investigating reported sounds of gunshots in Pritchard Hall. Building is secured. No access in or out. Police searching room by room.”
Is it happening again? Is this the beginning? Is it anyone I know? It’s probably nothing. It’s surely a false alarm. I called home just in case to say I was ok. I began to calm down. Within a few minutes I was fine and soon found out it was possibly a prank with fireworks or construction equipment.
Just when I finally could appreciate normalcy, this had to happen. Ironic, isn’t it?
Next post in series: http://ntcoolfool.livejournal.com/131878.html
Three hours later I was eating lunch with two of my friends when one of them received a text message on her phone. She had a nervous look on her face and showed us the text from her friend who doesn’t go to Tech: “Are you ok? I heard there were gunshots on campus”.
It all came back.
Walking out of the classroom to a chorus of police sirens. Parked police cars in front of a dorm. Seeing dozens of people screaming and running up stairs towards me from the Drillfield with extremely frightened faces. The campus-wide alarms, more sirens, taking 20 tries to call home to say I was ok, lockdown, the rumors, the guesses, the news of 2-12-20-33 dead and dozens more wounded. The unknown, the grief, the pain, the loss. The encroaching media, the very public blog. The year and a half afterward.
It all came back.
Within another minute I got a text from the police: “Virginia Tech Emergency Notification: Police are investigating reported sounds of gunshots in Pritchard Hall. Building is secured. No access in or out. Police searching room by room.”
Is it happening again? Is this the beginning? Is it anyone I know? It’s probably nothing. It’s surely a false alarm. I called home just in case to say I was ok. I began to calm down. Within a few minutes I was fine and soon found out it was possibly a prank with fireworks or construction equipment.
Just when I finally could appreciate normalcy, this had to happen. Ironic, isn’t it?
Next post in series: http://ntcoolfool.livejournal.com/131878.html