My name is Brooke, I'm nineteen years old, and I'm a freshman in college. I have lived through an era of mass shootings. This article begins with reference to the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida about two weeks ago. Well, it's been two weeks and why am I reminding you about it now? Because of just that. There is so much violence that happens in this country and it is affecting the next generation.

I want to take you through these major shootings over the past 19 years of my life that I can recall. I want to put this into perspective as a young person who lived in a short period of time where a school shooting or a mass shooting never crossed anyone's mind.

2007 - Virginia Tech

In April of 2007, I was eight years old. This is the first mass shooting that I can recall. Some of the images of police removing bodies played on the news and I specifically remember one of my parents saying, "I can't believe they're showing this? Can you imagine being that person's parents?"

It baffled me as a child because I honestly wasn't even sure what happened, I knew people were hurt, I knew people died, but I just never understood and I honestly don't think I ever will.

I remember after this event, my second-grade teacher sat all of us down in a circle time manner where we all had to sit criss-cross applesauce and she sat above us in her rocking chair. She explained to us how codes would now come over the loudspeaker to tell us when to go into a lockdown position. That was the first time any drill implementing a school-shooter situation had been introduced to me.

2010 - Columbine (Rachel's Challenge)

In sixth grade, I remember the next occurrence that I was introduced to a violent act against a school. Yes, you read the year correctly, I know that Columbine occurred in 1999, but I was only a few months old at the time, so this event didn't touch me until much later.

When I was in sixth grade, the brother of Rachel Scott came to my middle school to discuss the death of his sister in the Columbine disaster. He spoke about how she wanted to make an impact on the world and they were doing just that in her name. It was overall a beautiful program that they put on.

Some people did not take the assembly so well.

In an alleged Facebook post, an eighth-grade student went off regarding the assembly and talked about how it was about how the school was trying to prevent a school shooting, which looking back is ridiculous. I was too young to be on Facebook at the time, but I know this information second hand due to the announcement the principal made over the loudspeaker during my second-period literacy class that the boys who made the post were being detained by police. Only later did I get the rest of the information from my eighth-grade friend.

December 2012 - Sandy Hook

I was in eighth grade at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. I remember I had a dentist appointment that day so my mom had picked me up early from school. This was the era where people had smartphones, but not EVERYONE had a smartphone. News still moved a bit slower in middle school because they were very particular about phone use and texting still at this time.

I was sitting in the car with my mom and brother and my mom said to me, "Did you hear some guy went into a school and shot a bunch of kids?" And I was baffled. I remember saying, "What? That's weird." But the degree of the situation would not hit us until we got home and turned on the news.

This was especially hard for everyone. I remember my mom, in particular, coming to me in near tears because my brother was about seven at the time and it was so close to Christmas.

That was the first time I watched the news all night looking for any sort of answers.

2015 - San Bernardino

Once again, around Christmas time, the San Bernardino attack was the first mass shooting that affected me growing up that somehow didn't have anything to do with a school. Every kid remembers the work Christmas Parties their parents went off to one night in December. This makes the thought of them leaving for that party all the more terrifying for a child who's old enough to understand what's happening.

I was a bit older here, now in high school at the point of this tragedy, but somehow this time I was not surprised. Being seventeen years old by the time this tragedy happened, I was upset, but somehow not as shocked as I had been in my years passed. You become desensitized to all of it.

2016 - Pulse Nightclub

The Pulse Nightclub shooting hit me pretty hard. It was the summer before my 18th birthday. I specifically remember being so distraught as, at the time, most of my very close friends were on the spectrum in some way. It hurts to think that someone can take all of their hate for themselves out on another group of people just because they're "different."

Somehow though, once again, it didn't hit me as hard as it could've or should've because I'd seen it so many times in the past and we talk about all of the thoughts and prayers that we're sending to the victims and their families. And all of the THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS our congressmen and politicians are sending to the victims and their families.

2017 - Las Vegas

Las Vegas once again showed me how desensitised to gun violence I have become. The loss was a tragedy that day and baffles me beyond belief, but I somehow wasn't surprised. The more information that came out about the attack and how elaborately it was planned out by the piece of human garbage who went through with all of it, somehow, I wasn't surprised. Not in the slightest.

I think it was at this point that I began to lose faith in human.

Some people have so much hate in their hearts that they feel as if this is the only way to fix their internal issues and it's wrong.

2018 - Parkland

The shooting at Marjory Stone Douglas High School was something different. Being as I am now a college student and hardly have time to even eat, keeping up on current events is something that I am severely lacking. My grandmother actually notified me via text message about the situation hours after the fact.

The aftermath of the shooting is what has been the most inspiring. Once again, upon hearing the news, I wasn't really surprised hearing about it. But these kids are what surprises me. They restore my faith in humanity.

What do we do now?

We follow in the steps of those wonderful and brave children of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Let your voice be heard. Contact your congress people. Share the posts of survivors on social media.

Get the word out that this is not okay. What is happening to our kids is not okay and it needs to be fixed.