I haven’t written in a long time because I have become exceedingly busy with work and such. These are all things that I thought were very worrisome and required all my attention, making drop off the planet to friends, family, and this blog. But then something absolutely chilling happens and reminds you of the trivial nature of many of the things we worry about in our daily lives that take us away from enjoying our time with the things and people we care about most.
I have been following the events at Virginia Tech since Monday and have been very stricken by what occurred there. I don’t know anyone there and am in no way personally involved in what is going on there but it is so frightening and sad and to look at what all of those people going through whatever it is that they are currently going through. I cannot even begin to imagine what those people must be feeling.
The only thing I can keep thinking about through all of this is how truly sad it is that as humans we tend to require a shocking and horrifying event to jolt us from our day to day to appreciate life. We are reminded of the trivial nature of the day to day grind that continually requires us to choose between friends and family. I think especially as students, we feel pressure to get done what must get done and often sacrifice that phone conversation or that drive in the open air just to get things done. Though I do understand the importance of getting things done, it is also important to not get too wrapped up in everything because of the fact that life is fleeting. One second you are in class worrying about midterms and in an instant the world as you know it can change and those things no longer matter.
Paraphrasing something an official at the Virginia Tech convocation said, you can’t worry about academics if you do not take care of yourself personally. Obviously, for those people there, this has monumentally different meanings and I do not want to trivialize that in any way. However, I think there is a lot to be learned from that idea. I think school can make you take certain things to seriously at the expense of taking vastly more important things for granted. Classes come and go and can usually be dealt with if need be, life only has one shot. I am truly saddened by what happened at Virginia Tech and my deepest sympathies go out to all the people affected by this horrible tragedy. I just did not feel like I could report on the things going on my life without taking the time to pay respects to this monumentally important occurrence in our nation’s history and in the lives of those poor people who have been affected by it. More on the things in my life later. Take care, all.
