This post is 3 days late but yesterday I had a deep thought.  On April 16, 2007, one student killed 32 of his fellow university students and professors.  To this day there has not been a massacre like this on a college campus – although there have been other mass shootings on college campuses (Northern Illinois University shooting, February 14, 2008: received nearly no press coverage).

Here is a little more of my background and Virginia Tech.  I grew up in a small town that is 45 minutes away from Blacksburg.  Nearly all of my graduating high school class went to VT.  Most of my family has gone to VT for higher education of some sort – including two cousins who were in class that day.  Needless to say, this Mountaineer has some Hokie roots.

I spent most of yesterday in the woods hiking around with a friend but doing a lot of introspective thinking – which is what usually ends up happening with me in the woods.  My thought was this: What if I had been there?  Would I have been one of the ones barricading a door or trying to save others?  Or would I have been too scared to move?  Would I be here to write something like this today?  The answer that always ended up surfacing is “I don’t know.”  I do not know how I would have responded to a situation such as this.  I would like to think that I’d been trying to barricade a door or trying to protect a fellow student… but I don’t know for certain and I pray that I never find out.

To the 27 students and 5 facility who lost their lives: you are still remembered.  Much has been done around the country to try to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.  Nothing could ever justify what you all had to give at the hands of a lunatic but you will be remembered.

You are remembered.

Until next time, Ciao Ciao