With the recent shootings at universities making the headlines, one thing seems to be increasingly apparent; there is a very real chance that our own school or university could make it to the list of "School Shootings in the United States," if it hasn't already.
I am living in fear, aren't you? Every time I make eye contact with someone I don't know on campus I make sure to smile. Unfortunately I am not smiling because I am a happy person looking to spread my cheer. I smile because I tell myself; this person could shoot up the school one day and maybe they will remember I smiled at them and spare me.
In reality, my thinking could come across as silly, but in conversation with other students they have often identified with it as well. It seems pretty logical to have this thinking when lock down drills are practiced every so often and when the news seems to have another story about it each month. And ironically we have become desensitized to it. It happens so often that it doesn't shake us like it once did. Still our fear is still there, just less pungent and more a part of our routine. Like the duck and cover drills of the 1950's our lock down drills are just another part of our school life. Again, not lessening our fear, but making it more real to us.
If you're like me, you probably think about this quite a bit. You ask yourself questions like I wonder what class I would be in when it happened? I wonder if I would be brave enough to protect those around me? I wonder if the shooter would be someone I had seen before, or worse, someone I know?
The worst part is that the fear doesn't go away. In fact I don't think it ever will. There is no way of knowing if this will ever happen to us, and there is no real way of protecting ourselves. If we constantly are living in this fear of what could go wrong, then it quickly blocks our feet from moving forward. Of course I pray for our nation and especially for the families that have lost loved ones in these shootings. But we can't hide. We still have to get up the next day and get our work done and pray. We pray to God that it doesn't happen to us.
