Sometimes, bad things happen to good people.
It has always been hard for me to accept this, as one of the morals I hold highly in life is fairness. These bad things don't happen out of spite from the universe, because someone deserved them, or any other such none-sense like that. The sad reality is that, this is the way that life goes- up, and down, at times calmly like you'd expect, but more often erratic like you wouldn't. It is these erratic moments, particularly the extreme ones, that cause most people to feel confused, become afraid or angry, and struggle to understand what is going on in the world around them.
Seven and a half years ago, a young man decided that the best option for him was to take guns and begin shooting in one of the buildings at Virginia Tech University. On that day, 32 lives were lost, not including the gunmans'. One of the greatest losses of life by a single person, it was the largest school shooting that I could remember very clearly, as I was only in 5th grade when Columbine took place. That year, I was a freshman at Florida State University, and I recall distinctly standing in my dormitory. The room I was in overlooked Landis Green, a large lawn in the center of the school, as well as the entrance to Strozier Library, the largest and main library on campus. I was afraid, very confused, and extremely sad. I remember wanting to do more for Virginia Tech, but not knowing what.
Little did I realize that in 2014, my university would undergo a similar experience. Only one day ago, a man walked into Strozier Library and opened fire. With every fiber of my being, I give thanks for the next words I write: he failed to kill a single person. The police shot the gunman down outside of the library, and the three students who were wounded are being treated now.
When I read the breaking news story, I felt sadness and confusion. How could this happen at my school? Why would someone do this? Why were we so lucky, but so many other schools/universities not? How did no one know that the shooter was so upset/mentally ill/dangerous that he was able to go that far? Did the shooter have to die? (I am very strongly against killing anyone, especially if it is a case of mental illness. Not as an excuse, but simply because America needs to begin accepting that the things some people do are preventable if we put forth the time to respect mental illness as a serious problem. It is never as simple as bad guys and good guys, but rather: a good person who turned bad because of internal forces they did not receive the proper help to stop or care for.)
In the morning, when I woke up, I still felt sad honestly. To the point of, when I threw the covers off my legs and tried to stand up, I found myself instead crumpling to the ground in prayer, and crying. Maybe this sounds silly to you, but every loss of life, every tragedy in this world, every pain that goes unnoticed to the point of pushing someone to feel the need to take another person's life, is cause for grief to me. I feel for the shooters family and friends. I feel my former classmates and the current students. And I feel for my school, FSU.
We are Noles.
We are Floridians.
We are human.
Always,
Rita
