It takes a lot to call a place home.

First you have to familiarize yourself with the area, then venture out into the surrounding areas and get the lay of the land. You meet people and start going to these places and exploring your new home and all it has to offer. With this, as well, comes a feeling of safety and a sense of comfort in knowing that nothing bad can happen in your home… can it?

I made Orlando my home two years ago.

Since that fateful move to a larger-than-life city, I have experienced the charms of Orlando as well as the grime. Living on the campus of one of the largest universities in the country, my life was normally ruled by school with the occasional outing. Of course I was warned to keep a watchful eye on my surroundings and to not be too trusting with guys. Rape was a reality that was dug deep into my brain before shipping off to college, and I thought that that was going to be the thing I had to worry about most. You know, that boys will be boys sort of activity that gets people locked up for only 3 months for completely ruining the lives of young, defenseless females?

Then came the terrorist attacks in Paris late last year where one of the locations targeted was a concert venue. My normal safe haven of music and comradery was crackling before my eyes as I saw my favorite place in the world threatened. No longer did I feel safe and protected at the various Orlando concert venues that I would frequent once or twice a week. I had to leave shows before headliners took the stage because I would become consumed with fear that I was going to end up shot by someone in a place that I had no qualms about calling my second home. My attendance to shows dwindled, tickets went unredeemed, and I lost a piece of myself.

Fast forward to yesterday in Orlando where Christina Grimmie was shot and killed at Orlando venue The Plaza signing autographs after her performance. Now my nightmare moved closer to my home. This is a venue I had stomped around many nights trying to enjoy the escape from reality that live music allows. An Eden shattered by the violence brought forth my gun violence, the world lost a talented artist and a sense of safety.

It pains me to write that the story was not over for Orlando. Less that 24 hours after Christina Grimmie was shot, a gunman killed what is reported to be 50 people and 53 people injured at Pulse nightclub. This is reported as being the largest mass shooting in history. Comparing the numbers to Sandy Hook, where 27 were killed, and Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed, this event is shaping up to leave an everlasting mark on history.

My timeline of twitter is currently flooded with news, my Facebook is sending me rolling notifications letting me know which friends were marked as ‘safe’ during what my phone is calling “The Shooting in Orlando, Florida.”

As well as being the largest mass shooting in history, it is also the seventh one since Monday.

What will it take for the world to finally realize that there is a larger need to consider the safety of human lives rather than the furthering of various political agendas? How many more times am I going to have to sit here second guessing if it is okay to leave my apartment? How many more times am I going to have to watch these notifications roll in letting me know that my friends are okay? How many more politicians and senators am I going to see tweeting their “thoughts and prayers” for Orlando, these same politicians being the ones who can change these laws to prevent such attacks but go on to accept thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars in expenditures and donations from pro-gun agencies lobbying to have nothing done in regards to regulating guns? There is an obvious need for a rewriting and reevaluation of these laws if attacks such as these continue to happen and threaten the safety of every single person in this country.

How many more times must America and the world collectively shed tears trying to effect change? At what point is enough enough? Today the world is awash in the aftermath of a horribly gruesome hate crime, a hate crime that has irrevocably altered the lives of many.

We as a nation are past the point of being able to stay silent about this issue, an issue of not only gun regulation but of equality and acceptance as well. Something has to be done. Quit trying to take not only my sense of home but my literal home away from me.

Wake up people, homophobia is alive and well and guns kill people.

There is a serious need for blood donations in the Orlando area especially if you are O-, O+, and AB blood type. Please visit OneBlood donation banks at:

345 W Michigan St #106

(407) 835-5500

8669 Commodity Circle

(407) 248-5009