On Tuesday, November 1st, 2016, I had the opportunity and privilege to listen to Mark Barden speak about the Sandy Hook Promise.

I’ve never been one to vocalize my opinions on politics or social issues, but hearing Mr. Barden speak really made me think of what our world has come to. At times it seems as if we have made violence the new norm, with school shootings and other attacks happening all too often.

To this day, it is still unimaginable what happened in Newtown. It is unfathomable to many, as we are left with more questions than answers. How could someone to do that? What makes someone want to do such a thing? Why?

I live 15 minutes away from Newtown, CT and my city was one of many to feel the repercussions of such a tragedy. I remember sitting in English class and hearing the news. Our school went into a modified lockdown; we still went to classes but no one was allowed to walk outside and no one was allowed to come in. I remember going to gym class where my teacher was in shock, as her best friend was the husband of the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary. Talking to friends who lived in Newtown, and coming to school the next day with police down every hall, it seemed surreal that something so terrible had happened so close to my home, and to others right in their home.

You always hear about these things but never imagine to hear of them so close to you.

Since that day in December 2012, several programs have been started in order to prevent such tragedies from happening. The Sandy Hook Promise was founded to “prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge”. Over 800 thousand people have pledged the following: “I promise to do all I can to protect children from gun violence by encouraging and supporting solutions that create safer, healthier homes, schools and communities.”

As part of the Sandy Hook Promise are prevention programs such as Say Something and Start With Hello. Both programs teach children of all ages to befriend someone who looks lonely, and to simply smile and greet fellow students in and out of the classroom. They both also teach of warning signs of potentially dangerous behavior and advocate the importance of saying something to possibly prevent an act of danger.

Both the Start with Hello and Say Something programs were brought to my high school during my junior and senior year as well as our middle and elementary schools. It was inspiring and eye opening to see the whole community come together to put our differences aside for a common cause. Although my city was not directly affected, we had to come together to support our neighboring community.

It’s hard to imagine that you, one person out of the 7.5 billion people in the world, can make a difference. But as hard as it may be to imagine, we have to believe that some part of that is true. I will be the first to admit that I have constantly thought this, most recently with voting, wondering how my one vote could make an impact.

If there was one thing that I learned from this speech it would be that we as individuals do have the power to make a difference. We can spread a message, a sense of support and hope by promising to bring change. We can stand together to fix nationwide problems. For the Sandy Hook Promise, what started as a small program is now run nationally. As stated on their website, the programs are now being delivered in all 50 states and over one million children have been protected by such programs.

Words could never describe the pain of that day and it cannot even be imagined what those families had to go through. But if there is one thing that we can all do, as a community, as a nation, and as a friend is to show support. And the way to do that is to make a promise, like the Sandy Hook promise to prevent events like these from happening again.

We have to think that we are able to change the world because with the right mindset and power, we can. As Nelson Mandela once said, “we can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference.”