Hokies Will Unite After an Unthinkable Tragedy: A Virginia Tech Graduate's Story
Lisa DeNoia
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I felt sick to my stomach most of the day last Monday as the details of the Virginia Tech shootings unfolded. I couldn't stop thinking, Why? Why would anyone do this? Why would anyone do this at my school? Why would anyone do this at the greatest school in the whole entire world? 
That night, when I finally watched the cell phone clip that captured the sound of 27 gunshots from outside Norris Hall, I had a brief flashback to a sunny, warm, October afternoon just a few years ago. I was walking arm-in-arm with a cadet - my boyfriend at the time - after an English class, down that very sidewalk, smiling, laughing, kicking around fallen leaves on the ground, discussing Kurt Vonnegut, my later-to-be favorite author. We were sophomores. I cried.
I cannot believe that this "massacre", as Wikipedia has dubbed it, occurred at my school. At my school. A massacre? I am sure I speak for every alumnus when I say that although many of us are not directly acquainted with the victims of yesterday's shootings, we are still deeply saddened and horrified at what took place yesterday morning on the campus we used to call home. We're here, in our offices and our homes and our graduate schools across the nation and all over the world, and we are thinking of you.
We're out here. We are saddened and devastated, but we're not wearing black. We're wearing orange and maroon. We're wearing our class rings. We're driving around with our Hokie license plates and showing up to work in our VT polo shirts. We're re-connecting through phone calls and e-mails and text messages and bulletin boards and coming together to mourn this tragic loss. And we will unite, as we have before, and do whatever we can to support our fellow Hokies during this critical time.
We're out here and we're not going to let the news media tear apart the integrity and reputation of our school and its actions and decisions. I have every faith that the Virginia Tech administration and police department did everything possible in response to this unimaginable crime. Such an event has been unprecedented in our society.
That night, when I finally watched the cell phone clip that captured the sound of 27 gunshots from outside Norris Hall, I had a brief flashback to a sunny, warm, October afternoon just a few years ago. I was walking arm-in-arm with a cadet - my boyfriend at the time - after an English class, down that very sidewalk, smiling, laughing, kicking around fallen leaves on the ground, discussing Kurt Vonnegut, my later-to-be favorite author. We were sophomores. I cried.
I cannot believe that this "massacre", as Wikipedia has dubbed it, occurred at my school. At my school. A massacre? I am sure I speak for every alumnus when I say that although many of us are not directly acquainted with the victims of yesterday's shootings, we are still deeply saddened and horrified at what took place yesterday morning on the campus we used to call home. We're here, in our offices and our homes and our graduate schools across the nation and all over the world, and we are thinking of you.
We're out here. We are saddened and devastated, but we're not wearing black. We're wearing orange and maroon. We're wearing our class rings. We're driving around with our Hokie license plates and showing up to work in our VT polo shirts. We're re-connecting through phone calls and e-mails and text messages and bulletin boards and coming together to mourn this tragic loss. And we will unite, as we have before, and do whatever we can to support our fellow Hokies during this critical time.
We're out here and we're not going to let the news media tear apart the integrity and reputation of our school and its actions and decisions. I have every faith that the Virginia Tech administration and police department did everything possible in response to this unimaginable crime. Such an event has been unprecedented in our society.