Lessons From VT

This is without a doubt the most troublesome article I have ever had to write. How do I share with you a story of two people you may only know when their names are connected to the worst shooting in our country's history?

I can't do that. However, I can share with you some lessons I have been able to take from this past year in hopes that you understand another side of the story. On April 16, 2007, I lost two friends, Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson. They were my age and my classmates. They were the ones I laughed with and laughed at. The girls I danced with, went on adventures with and made music videos with; but for reasons I'll never fully grasp their lives ended when mine got to go on.

Loss hurts. Believe me, it is a pain indescribable through words and once you've lost a loved one it's impossible to go back to the way things used to be. 

As life moves on, pain will lessen, tears will dry and time will keep moving on. When you're ready to do so the best thing you can ever do for yourself and for those who have passed is to "keep on dancing!"

Dance to your beat, dance to your friend's beat, dance to that professor's beat you can't stand. Just dance my friends. Whether it's actual dancing or metaphorical, just enjoy your dance.

Think to yourself, what would you do if you had one year left to live? You wouldn't walk around dragging your feet, you would want to climb mountains, fly helicopters, and eat the world's largest bowl of ice cream! So why wait until it's too late?

Go out there and try things you've never done before. Take a road trip to Miami, parasail with your grandma or finally go out and accomplish that one big thing you've had the urge to do for as long as you can remember.

Keep in mind it is not only the big spectacles but also the small things as well that can be just as important. Have a conversation with the lunch ladies, tell that special someone how you truly feel, apologize for stealing your sister's Game Boy. Have a picnic.

Say your "please's" and "thank you's," hold that door open (even if that person is an awkward distance away and you don't know to keep walking or hold it open) and be nice.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Baz Luhrman says it better than I can, "Don't worry about the future, or worry that know worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday" -- or in my case an idle Monday.

Don't let your troubles hold you down, go out there and make this world a better place.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do or how to live, I'm just telling you what I've learned. This isn't a political message or sermon, these are just my thoughts -- take them for what they are worth.

There is forever going to be an unfixable hole in my heart, not a day of my life is going to pass where I don't think of the opportunities my friends will never get, but I cannot sit around and watch those opportunities pass me by.