Wishing you normal again

I don't pretend to even begin to understand what the students, faculty, administration and community of VA Tech are experiencing. But I wholly empathize with the hollow, distant stares I'm seeing in the student's faces. It conjures up the fragility, discomfort, distrust and complete disorientation after 9/11. All of us--certainly not just New Yorkers--were (and still are) hurt, angry and without balance after the attacks.

Those vacant stares are the result of a BIG question mark namely, how could this happen, why would it happen and when, if ever, will things resemble normal again? That question looms long after the news crews leave and the investigations cease.

I sure know that need for normal...and how desperately valuable it becomes in times like these. College is supposed to be the best years of our life (as we all know high school ain't) and for these kids it's turning out to be the most real time. That will never be right. It will always just be.

It's beyond me how they'll get through this semester...but they will. For many months we wondered how NYC would get its groove back...but it did. And, after a hard-won fight, we're surely not the same, but things have become normal again. They will for you, too.

If there was one thing I could say to the students, it's this: Try to have faith that one day normal will return. That day is far, far away right now. But all you need to know right now is that it's one day closer.

If there's one thing I could say to everyone else, it's this: I think what the VA Tech Community--most especially the kids--will need from the world in the coming months is not a lot of talk but a whole lot of listening. This is not "their 9/11," "the College Columbine," or "the Biggest College Massacre in U.S. History," it's their tragedy and their tragedy alone. They are the only ones who can tell us what they need. Let's just be sure we're listening.

Comments

[gianandrea facchini]

do you believe that it is possible to get to a normal day? is it right to get back to a normal day or doing this you may not learn a lesson?
i think that the normal day for these students, as well as for people going through a loss of a beloved person, is when you can stand up and say without crying: i do remember.

[Mack Collier]

"it's their tragedy and their tragedy alone. They are the only ones who can tell us what they need. Let's just be sure we're listening."

Well said.

[melissa Kerley]

a touching article on a startling tragedy