It was Valentine's Day during my senior year of high school. I was having an okay day as usual for me. I got home from school and went to film something for a project. Once I got back, my mother told me there was a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass, a high school that was 20 to 40 minutes from mine.

It didn't hit me at first because it didn't seem real. Douglass was a high school so similar to mine - how could this happen? Were we next? These were questions I asked and when I told friends that lived farther away, they didn't believe it either. The next day my mother forced me to go to school and going to school was unlike anything I have experienced. The mood was somber and I was scared.

School didn't even start yet but I told her how I wanted to go home. I had to stay in school but it really hit me when one of my teachers started crying when trying to comfort us. That made me cry since it finally hit me. I was in shock and seeing someone cry brought light to what happened. A friend in that class started to cry, we all were so sad.

One year later I am in my freshman year of college and I still think about this situation. As tensions rise, I can't help but be sad. As Americans, we are so diverse in our beliefs and values yet they shouldn't be dividing us. We must unite together to make a change.

The other day someone from my old high school made a threat - that is so sad. If you feel unstable, talk to someone, call a hotline. While we are never going to see the 17 people that died, we can prevent another 17 from dying.