A year ago today I was at work, and opened up my internet and on my msn homepage was a headline story that a gunman was loose on the Virginia Tech campus. I read a little clip about how he’d shot a girl and they thought it was a domestic violence dispute…I didn’t really think a lot about it…not the first time a crazy person had been loose on the VT campus, and they’d always handled it well, always been “overly cautious” to guarantee nothing happened…hours later I learned 32 people had lost their lives to this gunman.
I grew up about 30 minutes away from the Virginia Tech campus…my mom earned her bachelors there while I was in middle school…as corny and generic as it sounds, I’m going to say it anyways, because it fits…it’s just not the kind of place you’d expect something like that to happen…let me explain. My mom attended classes there while my little brother and I were in middle school…so 12-15 years old time frame…she would pick us up from school and drive to tech and go to class, or we’d ride the bus by ourselves to the campus, if she was already there…she’d give us each a few dollars so we could go to the on campus Burger King to get us a 99 cent whopper and a drink (free refills…we could survive off of that for hours)…after we’d finished our dinner we’d walk across the drill field to the campus library where we’d play on the internet or do school work, if we had any…she’d get out of class at 9 or 10 and walk across campus to pick us up…she’d ask us about our day as we walked across campus to the parking lot…we never worried about wondering campus alone, and she never worried….it was perfectly safe for us to wonder around, and no one ever questioned who we were or why we were there…the librarians learned our names, as did the security guards, but they all knew we were safe there on campus…or even, sometimes, we’d walk to downtown and go browse the shops, we never once felt in danger…
Last year, when the tragedy happen, I came home from work and cried. I have friends on the Blacksburg Rescue Squad, I have friends on the Christiansburg Police Force, I have friends that are Virginia Tech students and alumni (my older brother is tech alumni as are most of his friends)…I cried for them, I cried for what they’d seen, I cried for those they’d lost, I cried because I couldn’t be there with them….I’d been away from home for 5 years, and never once had I truly felt homesick, until April 16, 2007…a day or so later I received an email about Maroon & Orange day…an effort to get everyone to wear Hokie colors to show there support…I tried to find a VT shirt or hat for my boyfriend…every single store in the Hampton Roads area was out of everything VT, orange or maroon…normally, those items SCREAM at you from store shelves…but not one was left in Hampton Roads…my heart swelled…I’d never been so happy to NOT be able to find something…that evening I came home and the news reports showed people in England and France and all over the country (even the New York Yankees) wearing orange and maroon…it showed the community in Blacksburg standing together, uniting together, to overcome their grief…their pain….I talked to friends and family…and the whole community not only back home, but from all over the world, was uniting together to help the victim’s families…to help each other heal….
Tonight…the same pain and pride I felt a year ago is back, part of me wants to be home, but I know, that the whole VT community is united, even if it’s not all in Blacksburg…I watch the news cast, I see the huge moment of silence that occurred on the drill field…the whole drill field is covered in orange and maroon shirts, and yet, not one word is spoken…that’s respected, for our lost family…Almost every college, today, had some kind of memorial service…it shows that not only was the Virginia Tech community effected, but the entire college community, the entire country was effected…and the entire country is uniting behind the Virginia Tech Family.
So please, remember the Hokies in thoughts and prayers.
Blacksburg, I love you and wish I was home.
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