As roughly 32 of my peers lay deceased in Norris and West Ambler Johnston Halls, I struggle for the words to describe how I feel.
As eager, ambitious students, we all want to make history and leave our mark on the world. None of us wanted to be a part of the history that unfolded on campus Monday morning. We now share the burden of having been unwilling participants in one of our nation’s worst tragedies.
I’ve been in school of some form for 18 years, and in all those years, I’ve never encountered words that can truly express the sorrow, anger, fear and disbelief that we all share this day. Virginia Tech is a place of learning, a place of peace.
As Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger said, “Our sanctuary has been violated;” but this is not just an attack on Virginia Tech, this is an attack on the entire system of higher education and the environment of learning and cooperation on which it is built.
We, as students of higher education, need to show the community and the world that this senseless act of violence will not hinder the openness to people and their ideas which we, as Tech students, hold so dear.
We need to show that the actions of one man cannot and will not break the spirit of this university.
There are many questions that are on our minds. Why was campus not shut down immediately after the murders in West Ambler Johnston Hall were discovered? Why did many of the university’s emergency communication methods fail?
These are all questions that the administration has to answer. These are all questions we deserve to have answered. Be patient.
Let the police piece together what happened before we point the finger. Remember that no matter what protocol failed, the person who is ultimately responsible is the man who shot these people, and in his final act of cowardice, shot himself.
This affects all of us: Some will show their emotions publicly, others will grieve in the privacy of solitude.
I’ve always tried to write with a certain wit and sarcasm, but I lay that aside today and write with a sincerity that comes only with the most solemn of circumstances.
Have patience with your fellow students, teachers and friends. During these times, emotions are high and everyone deals with grief in their own way.
Watch over your friends and be there for them when they need you. Since 2003, I’ve been fascinated with the power the Virginia Tech community derives from each other’s mutual love for everything Hokie.
This is an unparalleled test for the bonds that hold our university together, and I say with faith and confidence that this atrocity will not break the spirit of Tech, but will fortify the bonds that hold us together, and together we can show the world that no one man can erase what we stand for.
While many universities across the nation have posted on their Web sites messages of support and solidarity, I was especially moved by the note from President John Casteen of the University of Virginia. Seeing UVa. students wear maroon and orange in support of us was a moving sight, and really puts our priorities into perspective.
Also in that statement were lines from a poem, written by a Tech student, about the violence of Monday’s wind and how we could all feel it beating down upon us.
What a perfect metaphor for the entire situation; I was touched by how deeply this has affected all members of the learning community. I think I speak on behalf of all of Virginia Tech when I say how much these words and the words of all who expressed their condolences mean to us.
Thirty-two members of our community were murdered, senselessly. It is our duty as the survivors to carry on the spirit of Virginia Tech and the spirit of higher learning that was extinguished in them, but lives on in us.
Sheehan is a columnist for the Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech University. The column was previously published on the newspaper’s Web site.