Like every 4/16 since 2007, I spend today thinking, reflecting, remembering, mourning, and crying at regular intervals. In doing so, and without fail, each April 16th I read a story, or hear about an act of kindness that reaffirms Nikki Giovanni's beautiful words, in particular, "We will prevail."
This is something Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson has been doing since the tragedy, but something I just learned about today, and wanted to share.
In his Memory today my profile pic is of one of my biggest fans, Brian Bluhm who was a victim of the Virginia Tech tragedy six years ago.— Curtis Granderson (@cgrand14) April 16, 2013
For anyone else looking, it took me a couple of seconds to find the link on vt.edu, here are the bios of the 32 Hokies lost: http://www.weremember.vt.edu/index.html.
Comments
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/14975/coleman-collins-remembe...
This is a good article by former Tech basketball player Coleman Collins that I like to read every year today.
Thanks for sharing that, that was a powerful read.
For 32, for Hokie Nation, and for Boston. neVer forgeT
This is awesome. Better than the one I found earlier this morning.
This day never comes without tears. Now for more than just our beloved Virginia Tech, but also for Boston. Our prayers are with our families and with theirs.
...and Columbine...and Oklahoma City. Unfortunately. April has become a month of tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech
Those articles and speeches give me chills up and down my spine. Blacksburg is a special place.
And for those who have never heard it, this is worth a listen as well. It's the Marching Virginians playing Amazing Grace, specially arranged to honor the victims of April 16th. There are 2 things you should note. The first is the 4 odd sounding chords you hear in the middle. Those are 4 chords of 8 different notes to represent the 32 fallen Hokies. The second thing is at the end is a baritone solo in honor of Ryan "Stack" Clark who was a tone in the MVs.
What got me through that time was the outpouring of support that the entire world had for us. I remember walking into Squires and just welling up at the sight of the gifts, cards, mementos that everyone had sent us. There was a card in GBJ written by a first grader that completely broke me down.
When I look back, I choose to remember how we came together as a community during this time and how the entire world embraced us. To me, this is what defines our university.
Even though I had long since graduated...I have a niece who was there in 2007 and I make sure to touch base with her every anniversary. I ran my 3.2 miles today for the 32...just like every year until I can't....
I drove back to campus that morning from a weekend at home and getting back to my dorm room in Cochrane, looking out the window facing WAJ I noticed at least 5 cop cars outside parked on the grass outside the door. I thought nothing of it and went to eat breakfast at D2. I walked across the drill field and was walking into Pamplin when I first heard the police sirens. It was only 3 of us in the classroom in the beginning until other students in the atrium were forced into our classroom by other professors. It was then we found out we were on lockdown. We had to turn on the TV hanging on the wall to WDBJ7 just to find out what was going on. After spending 2 hours in lockdown I remember walking across the drill field and I explicitly remember it was an unseasonably cold and windy day. Maybe the last real cold day before the semester ended. Strange how you remember stuff like that.
I know we all like to bash UVA, but I couldn't help but notice this from UVA's equipment account:
As for 4/16/07 itself, I still remember exactly where and what I was doing. This has been an emotional week for me...New River Valley Mall where I take night class at New River's satellite site, then the Boston Marathon, and the anniversary of 4/16/07. It is sometime tough to keep things in perspective when my cynicism wants to take over.
I remember that they painted beta bridge in Charlottesville in remembrance, too. It was deeply appreciated. Sometimes, even wahoos can be classy.
I remember walking into my high school english class and seeing it on the TV that my teacher was watching. I have loved this school for as long as I can remember, so when I saw that on TV I sat down and didn't say a word. Just watched it in complete silence. The rest of my classmates were screwing around and using what was essentially a "free period" to do nothing. But not me, I couldn't believe my dream school, the school I loved was having this happen to it. But after seeing how much the community pulled together after that I knew there was no place on Earth I wanted to spend 4 years of my life at other than VT.
And I know most people have already seen his story, but what Liviu Librescu did that day in order to save his students' lives is the definition of heroic. If you don't know then Google his name, it was one of those great stories that comes out of something so terrible.
That was pretty much exactly me, except my English teacher held an open discussion about it, it wasn't exactly a "free period".
i graduated in may 2008. because of my work schedule i havent been able to make it back on april 16 since my senior year. i went to blacksburg yesterday and took my dog so we could just walk around campus. tears came and went but it was good to be back. i spoke with some vt police who were everywhere, but the best thing about being back was seeing all you current students in maroon and orange (which is one of the reasons i wanted to go to vt), and just the sense of being part of something so much bigger than me. i know the 16th has almost always fallen in the middle of the week but for you alumni who have the chance try to get back next year. campus has changed a bit, but it really helped me during a really hard time for all of us.