Four Years

April 16, 2007 is a day that has forever scarred Hokies.  It is the day that a gunman murdered two individuals in a dorm room, and two hours later proceeded to murder thirty more students and professors in an academic building.  He then committed suicide.  Hokies around the world struggled to make sense of the tragedy that occurred.  That tragedy was being redefined on April 17th.  Through the cloud of confusion, anger, and sadness, a new sense of hope and healing formed - becoming infectious.  The school put together a Convocation for the Virginia Tech community.  The Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, did his best to offer words of encouragement.  The President of the United States, came and offered his condolences.  It's a pretty moving thing to watch your President speak.  The President of the university bravely spoke to his Hokies.  Then an unexpecting individual - a university professor - read a poem she had written as an expression of her feelings.  To say it was a powerful poem is really an understatement.  It gave strength, and more importantly, hope, to everyone.  A simple cheer was started, and it gave us life back.  At that moment, life was breathed back into a community that had it sucked out 24 hours before. 

Since that moment, a Hokie was redefined.  That new definition included resiliency, humility, courage.  That is what the past four years have been about.  We have - and continue to - prove to the world that we have let this tragedy define us for the better.  We are better than we thought, but not quite what we want to be.

So we are sad today - remembering such a senseless act.  We are angry, knowing 32 lives were cut way too short.  We are hurt that our safety, lives, and sense of normalcy have been so horribly violated.  But we are hopeful, knowing all the good that has come from the bad, and that we live life every day for 32.