Student Blog: A Somber Note on Our Current State

I had many plans for what I wanted my last BroadwayWorld article to be as a Student Blogger. As I have just graduated, and the program only goes until then, I knew my last one had to be special. I considered writing a piece on how scary it is to enter the real world and explore the possibilities that life is completely in your hands. The thought crossed my mind to write about my experience writing for this fantastic website and how it's helped me grow both as a writer and a person over the last two years. There were a million ideas.

Yet, when I sat down to finally write this mystical article that would sum up my time as a Student Blogger for BroadwayWorld, I couldn't write any of them. My mind was stuck on the tragedy that happened at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas recently. There was no way I could even think about writing anything else. Not when my heart was broken and fury rushed through my veins like never before.

Because once again, a mass shooting that brings devastating loss has altered our lives and world, yet almost nothing changes.

And I'm sick and tired of this.

I'm only 22 which to many still seems young. But through those 22 years of my life, I have unfortunately lived through some of the most horrific and inhumane tragedies that never seem to fully come to an end. Despite being born in 2000, I've only known a post-9/11 world and that alone was significantly different from what past generations have known. The Columbine shooting happened almost exactly a year to the day before I was born and I, like many others my age, have not known peace during the entirety of our lives.

The first mass shooting I really remember hearing about was Sandy Hook Elementary School. I was twelve and still attending the elementary/middle school that provided me with my education until eighth grade. The details are fuzzy about how or why the topic came up, but I remember the sickening feeling that settled in my stomach and the ache in my heart. How could something like that happen? How could innocent lives of little kids be brought to such a terrible end? And even though I have been practicing lockdown drills since I stepped foot in a school for kindergarten, I couldn't imagine anything like that actually happening.

It just got worse from there. Suddenly, every year of my life was defined by a deadly, and somehow worse than the last, mass shooting. 2016: Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 2017: the Route 91 Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. 2018: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 2019: Walmart in El, Paso Texas. And so on. It never ends. These are only the events that garnered national attention, but there were thousands of other shootings that occurred in each of those years. In 2022 alone, there's more than enough to try and remember and it's only the beginning of June.

At this point, as sad as it is to say, it's a wash and repeat cycle. We are desensitized. How can we not be when these events are such common occurrences? We are traumatized and cannot exist without being nervous about the potential of losing our lives by just doing everyday activities like going to school or to the grocery store or to church. This is our reality.

But it needs to change. Now.

The fact that life in the United States of America means less than a weapon is mind boggling and simply disappointing. It should not be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. I know more than ever that I will not give up on this fight until something is done. For those 19 children and two teachers who lost their lives in Texas, we are all sending an overwhelming amount of love to your families and community. Change is going to happen and no more lives will be lost in horrible events like this.

The message is clear. End gun violence.

That is all.