Sickened and saddened

I can't even begin to express how horrible it's been to follow today's news about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech.  I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but Virginia Tech is J's alma mater.  We met and started dating when he was still a student there, so I have vivid memories of the campus and have developed a real love for the school.  J proposed to me outside the campus administration building, which is right near the classroom building where most of the fatalities seem to have occurred. (I'll have to share the humorous story of J's proposal another time.)  I can't stop picturing the beautiful community of Blacksburg overrun with police and SWAT teams, for the second time in less than a year.

If it's that bad for me, you can only imagine what it's like for J and for the thousands of Virginia Tech alumni around the state and across the nation who have been watching today's horrible events unfold at their beloved school.  I have friends with family members in Blacksburg, and I hope and pray that they are safe at this hour. 

Please keep the Virginia Tech family in your thoughts and prayers over the next several hours and days.

Update: For more of my thoughts on this subject, head on over to The Soccer Mom Vote.  It's a rambly post, but I'm hoping it generates some good discussion.

Comments

[Wendy]

It is so awful - so senseless - I am sitting here in total shock - what a tragedy...

[Marilyn]

It's just awful, I can't wrap my mind around it. I keep wondering, "Why??" but I don't think there's any sufficient answer to that.

[bon]

Yeah...

speechless.

[Amy]

I can't grasp it. At all. My cousin graduated from VT just a few years ago. When I was at Carolina, my club lacrosse team travelled to Blacksburg for a tournament. It absoutley boggles the mind. Please send J my kind thoughts and condolences.

[stefanierj]

VT was one of the other job offers J got last year when he was on the academic job market, and he made a lot of friends there in a short time, and I am just crushed by this awful tragedy and the loss all those folks are feeling. What with the recent shooting here in SLC and the fact that a dear friend was shot to death on Easter Sunday, I just want to crawl under my desk and cry and cry and cry.

[Shannon (Sentimental)]

Glad you checked in. I remembered you saying J went there in a personal conversation and I began to worry. Not neccesarily that he was there but how to even begin to cope with something like that.

My thoughts....

[Izzy]

I know very few of the details but I did read a small blurb on Google. Thirty people? That's horrifying. And yet this sort of thing is becoming so commonplace. I'm sorry for you and J and of course for the families of the victims. What a terrible tragedy for all...

[judesmommy]

I'm in shock still. It's so sureal.

My heart goes out to you guys and all those who have family and friends in Blacksburg. It's a sad day.

[Becki]

Senseless is the only word I can come up with. The usual words that might be applied, like tragedy, seem pale and trite in light of what happened.

[mamatulip]

It breaks my heart. I haven't been able to actually read or hear anything about it yet because it just upsets me too much. I've got CNN.com open now and I'm going to read about it. I want to hide from it, but I can't.

[Lawyer Mama]

It is horrible. I'm in SE Virginia and it seems like everyone we know with college age kids has at least one at Va Tech. THANK GOD they are all accounted for. But I just can't believe it. It makes me feel sick.

[Sueb0b]

I can't imagine how I would feel if that happened at my alma mater. It is just so sad.

[Mad Hatter]

Sending my thoughts from North of the border. All these shootings; they're all so senseless and horrifying.

[silentsurfur]

My deep condolence to the family's who lost their loved once...this brutal act of that shooter is disgusting...All my prayers to the family's.. from India....I saw news there are a lot of Indian students studying...

Suri.
http://allinone-silentsurfur.blogspot.com/

[Pendullum]

So very very sad for the families of all the victims...
Just one death, in such a violent way is horrific but this toll, on so very many families is devastating...

[Redneck Mommy]

I'm so saddened for all those families who lost someone they loved.

There are no words to convey the horror I felt upon learning of this sickening crime.

My prayers to all those involved...

[Oh, The Joys]

I'm just so sad today, so sad.

[Brenda]

Thank you for this lovely post. I am a faculty member at VA Tech and my daughter is a sophomore there. We are both safe and were fortunate to be across campus from the worst of it. It is an incredibly sad time here .... It is just now beginning to sink in for many of us. The support from around the world has been incredible.

[ozma]

So sad...Yes, you do feel a deep tie with your school and when something like this happens it is a little bit like something happening in your hometown.

[wordgirl]

Yes...it's truly awful. My oldest is gearing to leave for college in August and don't think this doesn't give me pause. It does.

[V-Grrrl]

My nephew is a student at Virginia Tech. It's been hard to watch the story unfold from Europe. I wrote two posts on the subject--one when the news was breaking, one later.

[Catez]

I have kept them in my prayers this week. I got annoyed with the media and stopped watching coverage here. But I did realise that professor Giovanni on the news was Nikki Giovanni - who's poetry I studied years ago in College. She is fantastic.
I do feel for you all having this tragedy happen.