If I die in a mass shooting, know that I was trying to make my last thought be about you guys, but the time that I wore my swimsuit to school in eighth grade kept popping up in my head.
If I die in a mass shooting, know that I screamed, lied, cried, hid, and did whatever I could so that I could walk out alive. Because as much as I joke about what a mess I have made of my life, I am so incredibly infatuated with it.
If I die in a mass shooting, tell all the boys who come to my funeral to look dapper and wear suspenders because they didn’t do enough of that while I was on the earth.
If I die in a mass shooting, please watch all the movies that come out the coming summer for me. You know the first thing that I am going to be pissed about up there is all of the good summer movies that I’m missing out on.
If I die in a mass shooting, listen to Johnny Cash and dance when you clean out my room.
If I die in a mass shooting, know that I had a lovely life because of you. My soul spun around the earth because you allowed me to create a soul that was so abundant and big. Know that I was so grateful for that and you every day.
If I die in a mass shooting, tell Obama hi from me.
If I die in a mass shooting, mourn hard and fast. Cry when you think about the moments that I was robbed of, but always follow them with my favorite stand up comedy sketches. And on that note, if I die in shooting, make sure Amy Schumer is at my funeral and that the writers of Friends give my eulogy.
If I die in a mass shooting, publicize the crap out of it. Get all of it out there. Fight and fight and fight until there is finally change. Spread light and love in the situation while getting the point across.
If I die in a mass shooting, know that every time I saw a gun I felt as though I was in danger and never once safe and protected.
If I die in a mass shooting, look back at this paper and welcome the coming days as you would a New Year. Ask yourself hard questions, reflect on your actions and thoughts towards others.
If I die in a mass shooting, honor me by making friends and not enemies. As the world goes on without me, it will continue to succeed in dividing; blacks vs. whites, gay vs. straight, Calvinists vs. Arminians, Chipotle vs. Qdoba, liberals vs. conservatives. As the world goes on without me you will hear the second amendment, you will hear gun control, you will hear protection. You will hear all of these topics spread like wildfire as if the world dying outside really cares.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am going to care if I get killed due to gun violence, but I would hope that the massacre that ends my life leads the church that is this world into unity, not just another mockery. With that being said, I would hope that you remember sometimes how we dialogue in today’s culture is just as important as why we dialogue. So if I die in a mass shooting, I would hope that you would take a step back before you shoved the second amendment into the atmosphere, trying to give it more life. Instead, I invite you to write the second amendment on my casket, bury it with me and go out and help the people that would be affected in the massacre.
If I die in a mass shooting, stress the importance of tolerance to your children. Tell them about how different Jesus was from all the Pharisees and how his story turned out to be the biggest and most successful. Let your children’s light shine in whatever direction it may and make sure they help others shine even brighter.
If I die in a mass shooting, pursue people more. Give them the power to fight with their words and bodies as weapons. Empower them with knowledge of how to respect others instead of giving them a gun. Tell them that violence isn’t the answer. It just is never the answer.
If I die in a mass shooting, hold on to humanity. Start valuing people's lives more. For the lives around us can cure bodies and hearts, can create beautiful things, can give so much to the earth. Yet they are becoming more temporal as guns are becoming more valued.
When you lay me down to rest if I die in a mass shooting, know that my free spirit figured that there were too many innocent lives being harmed due to gun violence for me to rectify the everyday joe having an assault rifle and feeling safe by one.
If I die in a mass shooting, let it be the last mass shooting. Call your local congressman, go on CNN, text Obama, email Ellen. If I die in a mass shooting, I will have 49 new friends, along with thousands more who have experienced what I would experience. While you hold your signs up on earth that are preaching the second amendment, think of all my friends holding our signs in heaven that will simply read “no new friends.”
