One evening in November of my Junior year of high school (2015), my sister was home from college for the weekend and she brought a few of her friends with her. We were all sitting around talking as the tv played quietly in the background. A few moments later, an emergency news story came up. It read...

Paris Massacre

As everyone got quiet I watched my moms face turn from happy to scared. I watched as everyone in the room had this look of fear and shock. We all kinda waited for a second as the news broadcasters spoke. I sat with a blank look on my face, knowing that what happened was a tragedy and that it wasn't the last time I was going to hear the words...

Shots Fired!

Numerous Dead!

Suspect Not In Custody.

I then turned to my mom and said, "This is a horrible tragedy." But I knew the way she looked at the Paris attacks was different than the way that I did. The weekend of fun went on like nothing happened after that.

But then Monday came and the news had new reports about how many were dead, what happened to the gunman, was it domestic terrorism or not. And my moms face continued to have that same look of pain and fear that I did not experience. I was sad for the families, I felt a sense of loss but it wasn't the same. It was at that moment that I turned to my mom and said,

"You know this is normal for me."

She looked confused at first, so I explained,

"I'm used to mass shootings, it's NORMAL for me."

It was at that moment that tears came into her eyes as she realized that I a 16-year-old (at the time), felt that news stories about shooting had become my "Normal". She then responded with

"That's sad."

It may be sad that when I hear about shootings on the news or social media, I'm not shocked. I'm not even surprised anymore. I experience I sense of sadness for the families of the lives lost, for the people who had to go through that, but I'm not surprised.

Mass shootings, school shootings, terrorist attacks of any sort are my normal. I was born about 2 years before 9/11. I know nothing but the effects of these things. I don't know a life where all of these things didn't happen.

This is the unfortunate truth about the world we live in today. There is an entire generation of children through adults that do not know what life is like without these tragic events. It's time we accept that and try to make a change.