We Are All Hokies

The tragedy at Virginia Tech happened a year ago today. At the time I had just woken up for my first night in Alabama, where I was staying with students who attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

It was a pretty casual day and I turned on TV to catch up with the news in the world. Second only to ⁹⁄₁₁ it was the most horrifying news I had seen in my lifetime. For the last several years I have grown to be someone very passionate and enthusiastic about college life. Every college student in the world took it just a little bit harder, knowing it could have just as well been their college.

Well… knowing that I was going to be visiting VA in the next month, several people asked if I was going to be visiting Virginia Tech. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to, if i belonged there, and I didn’t want someone to have to host me amidst everything that had happened, and it would have been only a month later. My heart was torn I suppose.

As it went I never made it to Virginia Tech.

But it was just a week ago I was standing on the Virginia Tech campus for the first time. I was fortunate to have an opportunity that sent me there for a day doing some work.

It didn’t take long for my emotions to take over when I visited the memorial and the drill field.

I remember it clearly when I heard the news a year ago. Eventually it became just too much and I had to turn off the TV and just do something to not think about it so much.

MSU has become a home to me and my time there and memories mean more than I could express. I know there are thousands and thousands of Hokies that feel the same.

It was important to me that I was able to spend a day there a week ago, and to at least feel a little bit closer to Hokie Nation.