Spring is a sacred time for Hokies. The warm Blacksburg air makes walking to class more enjoyable. The Drillfield welcomes Hokies back for leisurely picnics, hammocking, sunbathing and just spending time with fellow Hokies. The budding of the trees and blooming of flowers in contrast to Hokie Stone is picture-perfect. Many events take place in April and May that are memorable for Hokies, some of those special events commemorate the tragic shooting that took place thirteen years ago.
Thirty-two Hokies lost their lives that day and seventeen others were wounded on April 16, 2007.
Mass shootings are now a commonality that we experience too often. We have become desensitized to lives being taken, our safety and education being threatened. Things that we should never grow accustomed to. At the time, the shooting that took place at Virginia Tech was the deadliest by a single perpetrator in the U.S. and it remains the deadliest school shooting. Although countless shootings have happened in thirteen years, this happened at Home.
If you are from the area you may be old enough to remember that day. Although I was young, I remember. Little did I know at the time I would be a Hokie one day. Little did I know that I would mourn the loss of people I never knew. Little did I know that my love for Virginia Tech and my fellow Hokies would be so great.
The activities that the university hosts throughout the spring keep the memory of those Hokies alive. This year yet amid chaos, we can not forget.
The last time I was on campus I visited the memorial remembering those that were lost. A chill goes down my spine each time I even think of that day. Standing in front of the memorial I felt an extreme sense of solace. Those Hokies never got to finish their time at the greatest university. They were robbed of the rest of the promising lives a Virginia Tech education offers. A goodbye was taken too soon, loved ones and friends never seen again.
The day after the shooting, April 17, 2007, a memorial service was held. Nikki Giovanni, one of the world’s most well-known African-American poets and University Distinguished Professor spoke to the Hokie Nation and the world. The words uttered by Giovanni are words that ring true still to this day.
“We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today and we will be sad for quite a while.
We are not moving on; we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly;
We are brave enough to bend to cry
And sad enough to know we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does the child in Africa dying of AIDS; neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army; neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water; neither does an Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hand to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies.
We will prevail!
We will prevail!
We will prevail!
We are Virginia Tech.”
Hokies are indestructible. The obstacles that each of us faces are not faced alone. We have proven that for quite some time and we will continue to do so through the trying times we are living through now.
Hokies are Hokies for life. The sense of community that is talked about at Virginia Tech is palpable and anyone who is a Hokie can feel it. That feeling never goes away. The love for this place and those that share that love is unbreakable.
We owe it to our fellow Hokies to never forget, to never take for granted the time we have, to live every day carrying out Ut Prosim. Serving those that we lost in memory and those that remain is something we should strive for every day.
We remember.
We are Virginia Tech.
The names of those that were lost thirteen years ago are listed here, may their lives and memories be celebrated and never forgotten.
Ross A. Alameddine
Christopher James Bishop
Brian R. Bluhm
Ryan Christopher Clark
Austin Michelle Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin P. Granata
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Millar Hammaren
Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
Rachael Elizabeth Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lee Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry J. Lee (Henh Ly)
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
Lauren Ashley McCain
Daniel Patrick O’Neil
Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz
Minal Hiralal Panchal
Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva
Erin Nicole Peterson
Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.
Julia Kathleen Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Joseph Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Geraldine Sherman
Maxine Shelly Turner
Nicole Regina White