Enough is enough: When it happens in your hometown

I drove past it every day on the way to my own school but I knew so many people from just growing up in the area. I played soccer with them all through elementary and even went over for playdates. I was there for his first steps growing up.

Little did I know his last steps would be running for his life.

I wish I wasn’t a plane ride away, where no one really understands what I’m feeling. Not many people have a shooting happen on the same fields they play on or same everyday streets that they walk. I feel loved by the people around me here at Syracuse, but it’s hard to feel understood.

A typical day of school was turned into the most tragic event to begin 2018. 17 were killed, many were physically injured, and countless others are emotionally wrecked apart.

All of these students entered the doors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School worried about an assignment they didn’t do or a test they had that day.

Not one person walked into school expecting there to be blood through the hallways just after two o’clock. They didn’t expect to have to hide in a closet for two hours, either.

The idea that someone had all this anger and animosity towards the past did not occur to anyone. The day was almost done when the fire alarm went off and people scurried out only to find a male ready to hurt not only the people at this school, but their friends and families all across the world. Many people here at Syracuse went to that same exact high school or grew up just across the street from there.

It’s even more difficult being so far away. I want to walk to Luke’s house and just wait to hear that he’s OK, even though he’s not. I want to be there with his family remembering all the times when we acted like one big family.

This could’ve happened to anyone’s high school and it’s happened to many, but having it become a reality makes me angry, and all I want to know is why.

Why has there not been anything done? Why does this keep happening in the supposedly land-of-the-free-home-of-the-brave?! Why are there still missing children’s photos all over my Facebook newsfeed or GoFundMes posted to cover funeral costs of 15-year-olds?

This whole event is a tragedy but we must prevail from it. We must make a change to make sure that everyday a parent can pick up their child that they dropped off in the morning. This nation strives to have every citizen educated. But how can we continue to educate without promising a sense of safety among our schools? That town is well known in the area for its affluence. With the average income being just over $153,000 a year, yet there was not enough money in the world to prevent this from happening.

There has to be a change.

Somehow.

Someway.