My Alma Mater

Nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is the place my heart calls home. It is the place I became an adult, the place I grew up in my faith, the place I fell in love with Jeremy. It's the place I learned what friendship was all about and made girlfriends who will never leave me. Ever. It's the place where I learned how to shag dance, consolidate financial statements, and roast coffee beans. It is the place where I realized who I was and started to like it.

I'm a Hokie.

No, I didn't "attend Virginia Tech." I'm a Hokie. We are, as some Hokies say, a Hokie Nation. There is a camraderie amoung VT grads that extends throughout all of eternity. To see someone in a VT sweatshirt prompts an immediate "Go Hokies" from our lips. There is no where else our children could go to college that would make us more proud. And for them to marry a fellow Hokie would be almost for than we could ask for.

You can imagine my shock, horror, and disbelief when I woke up this morning and saw my beloved campus on the news due to a horrific and deadly tragedy. In the background of the news articles I saw the dorm building I lived in. I saw the buildings I went to class in. I heard tales of tragedy in the building that was home to Jeremy's major. And I wept. I cried for my home. I cried for the kids who lived through this ordeal. I cried for those who didn't. I cried for the parents. I cried for my friends who are ministers at Tech at my old church.

It doesn't take the media long to go from reporting the facts and showing pictures the grieving to placing blame and speculating the long term effects of this event on the future of the school. Bad things happen. Terrible, horrific things happen. And while we all wish it didn't happen, calling for the resignation of the President and Chief of Police will not solve any problems--it will create them. It will not bring healing to hearts. It will not bring back the deceased. These men executed their respective duties as best as possible given the circumstances and the evidence. To blame them is to grieve them more than they are already grieving. And they are grieving--this is Blacksburg.

And while some people may turn down their acceptance letter from Virginia Tech because of this event, they are really turning down one of the finest universities in all of America. Tech is a school where a 2600 acre campus can feel as small as your backyard if you want it to. Where your professors take the time to know you by first name, even in a class of 500. Where football reigns supreme in the heart of the student body, even when we stink in the post-season.

Virginia Tech. My heart's home. Today my heart is breaking.