Today is the one year anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech. My thoughts go back to that day as I remember my son Stevie calling me and asking me to check the news and see why there were shots and SWAT teams rushing past him as he went across the drillfield. And then to watch in horror as the reports came in of over 20 shot and my oldest son emailing me telling me he was getting reports from the campus it was much worse.
The moments spent accounting for all the Hokies from Woodbridge that were there and might have been in the count of dead and wounded. Hearing from my daughter that she and her roommates were safe and that she had been in class in the building next to Norris Hall.
What really amazed me was the reaction of those young adults to the criticism of their administration and their refusal to buy into blaming anyone other than "the killer" for what happened.
To watch the spontaneous prayer meetings and candlelight vigils and watch them grieve as Hokies.
To see the pain in my oldest's eyes and his longing to be down on his beloved campus with the other students and encouraging him to go spend the weekend there so he could grieve with his Hokie family.
To watch the Hokie Nation recover and show to a cynical world that people do care about each other.
To watch rival campuses offer hope and comfort to the Hokies in the spirit of America.
And now on this anniversary to watch them again grieve I realize that even tho I did not attend Virginia Tech that it is truely a fact, as is told us at orientation, that once you have a student attend Tech you as parents are also Hokies. I am a Hokie as sure as my sons and daughter and part of the great Hokie Nation that has shown America and the world that in the midst of sorrow there is still hope and love.
We are the Hokies.
We are Virginia Tech.
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