It was just another day in a small town in Connecticut. Twelve girls and eight boys were kissed good morning by their parents. Six school employees brewed their pots of coffee. It was just another day.
Twenty-six people walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School unknowing of what December 14, 2012, would bring. The kids were impatiently waiting for Santa to arrive and teachers were impatiently waiting for the much-needed winter break.
But it wasn't just another day.
About 45 minutes away I was sitting in the school cafeteria. I should've been studying for my final exam in an hour, but I couldn't focus. In between me looking out the window, reading (and not retaining) my notes and listening to the news I was completely drawn into the breaking news report.
This wasn't just a normal day.
At 9:35 a.m. Adam Lanza opened fire and killed school principal Dawn Hoshprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach. He then approached a classroom and killed fifteen students, their substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau and a teacher's aid Rachel D'Avino. Lanza entered Victoria Leigh Soto's classroom and fatally shot her and five students.
It has been three years and as I write these names and reflect on this day my heart breaks all over again. My heart breaks for the twenty students who will never get a good morning kiss again and it breaks for the teachers who will never see all the good they have done for their students.
As I mourn the loss of twenty-seven amazing human beings I remind myself of the heroes: First-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, library staff Yvonne Cech and Maryann Jacob, music teacher Maryrose Kristopik, teacher Abbey Clements, reading specialist Laura Feinstein, the bus driver who found safety at a nearby home and those homeowners and Newtown Police Department.
I thank every one of these people from the bottom of my heart. I know you probably wish you could've done more, but I think you did more than enough to save the innocent children.
December 14 will never be a normal day. It is a hard day forget and a hard day to remember. But we must remember. We must remember the event that changed the United States forever. We must find a solution to gun control. We must help those with mental illness.
Today is just another day in a small town in Connecticut, twenty children kiss their parents good morning.
