Spilling the Tea...Tragedy in T.O.

Today’s blog post is going to be a little different from what I usually write. When I first started blogging, I wanted my website to be a little corner of the internet that made people happy. Whether it’s a joke that makes your eyes roll or helpful piece of advice, A College Girl was created with the intention to make anyone’s day a little brighter.

And I’m sorry today isn’t like that. I’m not here to joke about social media or share college advice. Today, my heart is heavy.

I woke up this morning with a few texts from my Dad, nothing out of the ordinary. But when I opened them up, I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

“Another shooting,” he said.

…

“Down the street from my office. Country bar filled with college students,” he continued.

Country bar?

…

Not Borderline, I thought. Not the place I went as a child and learned how to line dance with my Girl Scout troop. Not Borderline, the dance hall where my friends go while home from college. Not Borderline, the little piece of country in our safe town.

“Borderline,” he said.

…

I followed the link he sent to a LA Times article. “Blood everywhere…eleven victims…threw smoke bombs and rained bullets…this is a safe place,” the article continued to recount the terrors of the night before. I stopped reading.

…

It hard to make sense of the senseless, and I don't think one blog post is going to help with that. With every mass shooting that has occurred these past few years, my thoughts have been with the victims, their families, and the surrounding community. I never thought it would happen down the road from where I grew up. But then again, I guess no one does.

…

Last year, I worked at a local high school in Portland where I mentored seniors. I was leaving the school when I was pushed into a tiny conference room crammed with people. Door locked. lights off.

“Stay low,” someone said.

“Gunman on campus?” one person whispered.

“I think it was a bomb threat,” said another.

“Not again,” I overheard a student say.

Time stood still while we waited. After about two hours we were told that we could leave, and that it was a false alarm. I breathed a sigh of relief, but was still taken aback by the comment I heard a student say.

Not again.

It was said so casually, like this was a routine fire drill or as if the lunch lady served the same meal two days in a row.

Any threat or endangerment to someone’s life is not casual. Whether it’s a tragic mass shooting, or a false alarm on a high school campus, the violence presented in our society surrounding guns should never be taken lightly. With our current political system, I don’t know what is going to happen with gun reform. One can only pray that one day, we won’t have to wake up and receive horrific news, like the Borderline shooting, again.