Today is a very special day in my our community.
Today strangers and friends alike unite to remember the tragic day that took place 5 years ago.
Every member of the Virginia Tech community can tell you exactly what they were doing when they learned of the events on campus. As a recent graduate, I sat at a fairly new job staring at a myriad of websites waiting for each to refresh with more news. I wanted so badly to see something comforting.
Five years ago, we sat in astonishment, in tears. We knelt in prayer for our friends still at the university and for strangers we had never met. The following day, Nikki Giovanni said what we were all screaming inside.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
As they days passed, our hearts broke each time we heard about someone talk about our university. Did you hear what she said? “We will continue to invent the future….We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.” We wanted so badly for people to go back to talking about our football program.
It’s easy for me to say, as a Hokie not attending the university at the time of the shooting and 5 years removed from the event, when I think of Virginia Tech I don’t think of the tragedy. When I think of Virginia Tech I think of my best friends, my sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, my “extended” family. I think of football. I think of Blackburg’s beauty. I remember the most amazing moments of my life. I think of laughing so hard until I cry. And of course, I think of an education I’m so thankful to have (Top 15 fashion school IN THE WORLD – woot, woot!).
This morning I read an article in the Washington Post; how did the survivors of that day cope? They returned to Virginia Tech. I can say without a doubt that I would have done the same, against my parents wishes if necessary. The things I learned at Virginia Tech can’t be put in a book. They can’t be described on paper.
I am undoubtedly a better person for having attended Virginia Tech. I am a proud Hokie, always and FOREVER. Today, and everyday of my life, I will try to live for the 32 that no longer can.
