This Monday, April 23 will be a campus-wide Day of Remembrance for Virginia Tech. According to an email from VSG president Cara Billotta, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to wear the Hokie colors and orange and maroon ribbons will be given out. There will be a moment of silence at 12 p.m., when the Kirkland Hall bell will ring 32 times in remembrance of each victim. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, students can offer condolences and share support for the VT community in a leather bound book which will then be sent to Va. Tech. All of these events will take place on the Sarratt Promenade.
It is difficult to find hope in such a sad, confusing time. Still, there are small ways that we can reach out to Va. Tech and to one another during this hard time.
The Va. Tech shootings were extremely upsetting to me. I have many friends at the school, and it was a place that I considered in my own college search. Just as I cannot imagine this happening at Vanderbilt, I cannot imagine how this happened at Va. Tech.
Things like this affect me, as they do most people. I get confused, mad and frustrated. I want to yell, scream, cry and hug. I want to ask why, but I resist the desire. I know that there is no answer that could satisfy my questions.
All day Monday, I felt for my friends. I felt for the friends of friends, the acquaintances and the strangers that had been affected by this tragedy.
So, I began writing. I wanted to tell the stories of the Va. Tech students, so that we - at Vanderbilt - could join in the pain and begin the process of healing as a community of college students.
I wrote this article by interviewing friends and friends of friends at Va. Tech. As I listened to their individual stories, writing became a way of dealing. There was something about the process of gathering my thoughts and putting them onto paper, using the words of those who had been there and felt this tragedy, that made me feel... better.
Apparently, I was not alone in my attempt to cope through journalism. Check out this clip to see how Tech students used journalism to get through Monday's events (courtesy of Paige Clancy).
Here is another really cool slideshow put together by a JMU grad who went to Va. Tech on the afternoon of the shootings to work for the Associated Press (also from Clancy).
Wednesday night, I attended the candlelight Service of Hope and Remembrance, held by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association at Benton Chapel on main campus. The chapel was full, and the service was both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. VT alumni and Vanderbilt students shared stories, psalms and prayers throughout the evening. The overwhelming message wasn't sadness. It was STRENGTH.
I was not able to get the names of everyone who spoke that night. But I did write down a few uplifting statements and stories, that I believe are worth sharing.
- an alumna said, "We have seen horror and from now on, we have nothing to be afraid of. We have camaraderie... we have each other."
- “out of so much bad, there is so much more good”
- one Vandy student quoted psalm 23: "Though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me."
- “I’ve never been more proud to be part of the VT community.”
- a member of the Va. Tech football team from the class of ‘04 said that “Va. Tech has to grow from this” and that it “never meant more to put on these colors than it did today.”
- a past member of the Core Cadets spoke about the cadet who was killed in the shooting
- Dr. Earl Lavender, Professor of Bible and Ministries and Director of Missions at Lipscomb University, shared that last Tuesday, students and faculty gathered for a time of prayer and said that they will be wearing maroon and orange at the annual golf tournament
- Cara Bilotta shared that her grandfather was a VT graduate and she never understood what it meant to be a Hokie until now
- "God can help you heal"
- an alumna shared that though the shootings have been called a tragedy, disaster and massacre, she hopes those words will some day change to “kindness, outreach, and in time, forgiveness”
It was comforting to be in that chapel among so many Va. Tech graduates who loved their school so dearly. I've never experienced such extreme pride, such great love for a school as I did that night. As one alumni proudly stated, Hokies really do wear their allegiance on their sleeves.
Please wear MAROON and ORANGE tomorrow. It’s a small gesture, but means a lot.
