Often times when I write about Virginia Tech I mention the nights with friends, tailgates in the field, or various other events that somehow include lots of laughs, love and - of course - a few good drinks. It is not because this is how we spent all of our time, but because in those moments we were free from the occasional stress and nerves college life can present.
However, there are plenty of more somber times that made me realize my true appreciation for my school.
Almost everyone knows how the story of April 16th goes. While some focus on the moments leading up to that horrible morning, I want to focus on the time after. Because it was in those moments of great adversity that I realized what a strong community I had become a part of.
On the night of the 16th, four of us girls decided to choose a dorm, pull down the mattresses to the floor, and make a large king size bed for us all to sleep on. Not only was it a way to feel a little normalcy - with the chips and salsa and mindless talk - but also a way to find comfort in a situation we were all unfamiliar with. As we laid there that night, I think we all slowly began to comprehend what had happened.
Once we had gotten over the initial shock, we decided to attend the convocation and pay respect to the 32 members of our community we had lost. That day in Cassell - for me- it was not the President's speech, nor the religious verses read, that offered the sense of community and comfort we were desperately seeking, instead it was a cheer we were all familiar with: "Lets Go, Hokies".
Somehow that simple cheer embodied everything we were feeling that day: sadness, hope, and an overwhelming love for our community.
For many of the next few days we were always found in some sort of a group - eating, sleeping, laying on the lawn, walking around campus...we did it all together. We had become more than just a group of friends partying and sharing gossip, we were our own hokie family.
In those next weeks following, people from many different cities and states came to offer a helping hand and get a glimpse of the community that was determined to fight back. It turns out the cheer had not only inspired us, but it had inspired the nation. A sea of orange and maroon seemed to fill the drillfield every day as we all came together in an effort to regain a sense of safety, ease and pride, that a college life is normally built around.
Somewhere during that time, it seemed the members of the class of '10 had gone from being freshmen finding our footing, to part of a large - and loving - family.
To fully capture this, when writing about our graduation, Bill Roth said:
"When you share the most euphoric highs and most horrific lows with the same people and in the same community, a tight bond builds. Things happened during the last few years on campus that no student should ever have to endure anywhere, especially when you're a college freshman, as was the case with many of this year's graduates. But the end result is a bond that will last a lifetime."
I don't think I could have said it much better myself.
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