Reminder

The Virginia Tech shootings happened over a week ago, and I've been thinking about the event and its effects on the students and faculty of Virginia Tech, other college or college bound students, and the rest of the U.S. I think the first thing that I thought of after hearing about the shootings was the Columbine school shootings. The whole mass student and teacher murders followed by suicide by the shooter. It felt very eerie and I couldn't completely accept that such a terrible thing had happened...again. The Columbine shootings happened when I was much younger and did not take the time to process how that could affect me and the possibility that one of the dead students could have been me. Now, so close to the edge of the nest ready to take off to college hearing about the Virginia Tech shooting affected me a lot more. The are surrounding Virginia Tech was described as being "suburban and safe." Definitely not the place that one would except such a tragedy to occur. My college is in the industrial part of a city, but when I think of Nebraska, I think safety and "Midwest Nice" so nothing could happen to me, right? I would be less hesitant to go to college if the VT shootings had not happened. I would be less aware of those around me. I think the VT shootings were a reminder to students and parents that college, supposedly the best years of life, is not a sanctuary. The good and the bad are mixed together to prepare us for the different types of people we will meet as we explore the world, and unfortunately, there are terribly messed up folks out there that you just have to avoid. The problem is knowing who the "avoidables" are and there is know way to know until it's too late.