This week has been emotionally draining for the entire country. To hear about a school shooting is one heartbreak. But to hear the murmurs of those locked in classrooms unsure of their fate through videos shared throughout social media is a completely another kind of heartbreak.

The weight of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School of brothers, sisters, students, and faculty is an unbelievably heavy one.

While many of us hope for the best and expect the worst, the situation at Parkland is something unthinkable. Besides the loss of so many, the real tragedy comes from the fact that this isn't the first mass shooting to happen within a school, not even the first school shooting in 2018.

Putting those words to paper "a mass school shooting," leaves me feeling sick. It doesn't sit well with anyone for that matter. Those three words should never interact in a sentence, let alone in the hallways of a high school.

Mass. School. Shooting.

Our country is shaking its head. Our country is left debating if this shooting was a gun issue or a mental health issue or a combination of the two. An entire country is puzzled as to how a shooting of this magnitude happened... again.

An entire country feels broken. I don't know a single person who is okay right now, and I only know one person who is directly connected to someone who was within Marjory Stoneman Douglas 's walls when the shots were fired.

I am one person who isn't directly connected to the situation, yet I feel pain. I can't even imagine what those who are directly in the spotlight feel. Those who lost everything that day, those who are being poked and prodded by the media for a statement or comment, the people who were there inside that school and heard the sounds of the gunshots and the screams.

I, along with many others, grieve with you today. This affects us all, as the entire country is now questioning "what can we do from here?"

What we can't do is sit back and send our thoughts and prayers anymore and think that alone will solve the problem.

While increasing gun control is one option, and up-ing awareness for those with mental illness is another, as a country we only have one option right now.

Because the government will not step in immediately and make any changes to fix the problem right now, we as a country must come together and mend the ache ourselves. Together.

Don't worry, we will march Washington and we will get Congress to make changes to the system so that not one more mother has to lose a child to a school shooting. But for today, we must use our words to make the first step.

We must be kinder so that no child is left behind to think that they have to do what Nikolas Cruz did this past Wednesday. We must remind those in our lives how much they mean to us, not because we may lose them at any time.

Trying to understand the people around us HAS to be the first step in ending school shootings.

I don't know anyone who knows what to do. Everyone I talk to is confused and trying to string together a solution on their own. By talking out how we feel, what we see, and what our questions are about this school shooting we are making ground. However, we must fix the problem together.

One person opened fire in Parkland, and one person alone could have changed his mind and saved so many; physically and mentally.

It takes on person to spark a change. There are so many of us looking for a solution, a way to prevent children from dying in their schools in the future. I think the first step is spreading our love, and showing it to. While it may seem small, as if it wouldn't do much, love is a crazy beautiful thing that our world could use more of. Kindness and empathy and compassion is something that is human nature, this evil is not. We must overcome it.

With love, all things are possible. Hopefully, by loving those around us, from strangers to our closest relatives, we are able to start to change the way our country works.

No one should be shot in a classroom before it is talked about. No one should be shot in a classroom. No one should feel they need to shoot kids in a classroom.

Things need to change, and it's unfortunate it has taken this long for talk of change to start.