Commentary: Pain, Pride and the Search for Something Positive

One year ago today.

On April 16, 2008, those four words are all you have to say to anyone in the Virginia Tech community.  There is an implied understanding that comes with them.  Everyone knows the anniversary this date represents.

But, unlike other anniversaries, a celebration is not going to accompany this one.  Instead, it is marked by a candlelight vigil.  It is marked by the memory of 32 lives inexplicably and abruptly taken by one malevolent man in a quintessential college town seemingly incapable of serving as the backdrop of mass murder.

It is a day where so many lost loved ones – sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and classmates.  Promising, young minds were taken before their potential could be realized.  Insightful, experienced minds were taken with more wisdom to bestow.

Though time may have helped the pain subside for some, it never completely goes away.  There is always something that will conjure up those inerasable feelings.  The shootings at Northern Illinois in February undoubtedly brought back eerily familiar memories for the Virginia Tech community.

And there are many sobering memories from that day.  Some are too vivid to forget, even though the mind may have attempted to repress them.  There was the sight of students jumping out of Norris Hall classrooms to flee the gunman.  There were the sounds of sirens furiously heading toward the gunfire.  There was the open-mouthed, ghostly-white-faced feeling of shock as reporters announced the rising death toll.

For those inside the building, the visual images they witnessed can never be fully grasped through words.  Blazing bullets and bloodied bodies are something you expect to find in a war zone, not a classroom or dorm room.  In the aftermath, a veteran FBI man said Norris Hall was the most horrific crime scene he had ever seen.

Then, there are those who were not there but still felt as much heartache as anyone else.  Those who had to pick up the phone and listen to someone tell them their loved one was never coming home again.

Yet, the dynamic of the story of that day is not fully understood through grief and tears.  Through the cloak of tragedy, inspirational moments emerged.  Some of these hopeful stories are known throughout the Virginia Tech community, even nationally.

It started the day of the shootings, with the heroic act of engineering professor Liviu Librescu.  A Holocaust survivor, Librescu sacrificed his own life blocking the door of his classroom and holding off the gunman so his students could escape out the window.

It continued the day after the shootings with a stirring speech delivered by Virginia Tech English professor Nikki Giovanni to close the convocation at Cassell Coliseum.  Her words triggered a mournful crowd to erupt into a resilient chant of “Let’s Go Hokies.”  And a phrase repeated over and over in her poem, “We Are Virginia Tech,” has become a rallying cry for Hokies everywhere.

There was also plenty of outside inspiration to help pick up Hokie spirits.  Hundreds of letters, banners, posters, and other paraphernalia were signed by students from colleges and universities across the country – across the world even – sending their thoughts and prayers to Virginia Tech.  These pledges of support were prominently displayed across the campus, giving the Virginia Tech community a chance to take solace in these signs of solidarity.

However, not all of these uplifting stories are widely known or grand in scale.  Most, in fact, have flown under the radar, known only to those who witnessed the moments or heard the words.

Like the student who ran 32 miles – one for each victim – at the Relay for Life event held on Virginia Tech’s campus less than a week after the shootings.

Or, the parent of a prospective student who, after watching the way the Virginia Tech students banded together in the wake of the shootings, said he would be proud to have his child go to school with those students.

In another show of support, there was a parent who hand-delivered his child’s matriculation fee soon after the shootings as a sign that his child would not waver from his commitment to attend Virginia Tech in the fall.

There are surely more of these little memories circulating amongst Hokie Nation.  And perhaps – through all the devastation of that day – these are the kinds of little things that provide some comfort.

Because as much as April 16, 2007, bonds Hokie Nation in pain, it also bonds it in pride.

The pride cemented through stories like the ones above – from the gut-wrenching, personal tales of the victims to the simplicity of a perfectly-timed, uplifting phrase; from the stories widely circulated by the media to the word-of-mouth stories circulated by Hokies themselves.

The healing power of these moments was apparent immediately in some cases while the impact of others has evolved in the days and weeks and months since the shootings.  A year later, some are still evolving.  Perhaps there are even more to come.

Everyone affected by that day undoubtedly has a personal favorite among these stories – one that struck an emotional chord, one that became an inner beacon of strength.  And that’s something they can cherish for as long as every April 16 comes and goes.