Imagine sitting in your classroom, going through your day to day routine of listening to the teachers go on and on about a subject. You can't stop looking at the clock, hoping for the school day to end.
You suddenly hear a fire alarm and even though it's the second one of the day, you just suppose it's nothing too out of the ordinary.
So you walk out of that classroom following other students and then you hear it.
You feel it.
You hear ear-deafening screams. You hear gunshots.
You feel people pushing towards you, trying to run away.
You see blood. You see a body, lying on the floor.
Your throat tightens up, you can't breathe. There is no way that there is a shooter here.
Someone who is killing all of these people you know and some that you have grown up with. You run as fast as you can away from the shots that resonate against the walls.
Pushing yourself against other students to find a classroom, where you find a place to hide.
Tears are streaming down your face. This can't be real.
You are confined in a closet along with a girl you knew from chemistry class. Both of you are breathing heavily, unable to comprehend what is going on.
All you hear is screaming, bullets hitting people, bullets hitting the ground.
This was supposed to be a place where we would be the safest. A place built on the foundations of learning and safety.
A school shouldn't be a shooting ground.
This was the reality for the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. They lost friends, teachers, fellow students, and their security.
No longer would they ever feel safe and secure at a school or even a public place. This horrific incident will follow them throughout their life. It will scar them in ways we wouldn't understand.
It's during this absolutely horrendous time that we need to make a change.
The victims of this massacre have already spoken out and are actively making changes. We can take our part by supporting them, whether it's through social media or joining "The March Of Our Lives" on March 24th or the "National School Walkout" on March 14th.
It's time for there to be changes made to our system whether it's making mandatory background checks or requiring mental health records.
We need some form of gun control.
Yes, I believe that people have the right to bear arms and protect themselves in situations. But I do not believe that a nineteen-year-old should be able to buy an AR-15 rifle along with nine other weapons.
School shootings are becoming so prevalent. This was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States.
We are only two months into the new year and there have been a total of 30 mass shootings since.
How far are we willing to allow this to go on for?
There is obviously a problem. We have the power to solve it or at least make things better than they are right now.
Go to your local legislator, write a letter to the mayor, or even the president. You may not think that it can make a change, but every single action counts.
