NIU Shooting
Although no longer a student at NIU, the tragedy yesterday has stricken very near to me today like many. My thoughts yesterday were to be sure my sister Stacey and her fiance, Angel out at NIU are ok. Angel of course would have been in the vicinity during the time of the shooting but due to having no ride to class and probably sheer laziness, he skipped classes yesterday.
Now today, after a night of very odd dreams and seeing and hearing news and 1st person accounts, it really has felt very odd to me today. I, like many, are very familiar with very plain CO100 or CO101 auditoriums as I had taken 4-5 gen eds and some CS courses in there. I can still imagine the plastic seats mounted on steal, the swivel wooden desktops, and sloping concrete floor that if you spilled, a liquid could move down the floor for 10 or more rows. I even am familiar with the back tech room from where the shooter emerged as I had been back there for a theater course presentation.
I can almost put myself in those students place. Last ten minutes of the 1hour 15min gen ed course, half dozing off and anxious for the hard-to-see clock all the way at the front of the room to hit it mark for the class to end. In fact, I remember, at that time, the clock was actually fast because I had a professor in a CSCI course that would insist that his class was based off of his watch that is set to the atomic clock. This made the last 2-3 minutes of the class miserable.
It really must have been a shock to see someone in the front of the room emerge and in semi sleep like state to see the events take place and try to react. The sounds must have been loud with the uninsulated concrete floors. The room must have been true chaos as 100 students get down or rush out of the two exits at that top of the room. Very scary thoughts and I myself would be weary of sitting in that room or any of the other similar auditoriums if I were a student still.
In all honesty something unpredictable and twisted as such can take place anywhere and at anytime. We almost have to feel gifted to live in a place where we have had a notion of safety in our minds whereas in other places of the world people live their life with some fear due to similar such as suicide bombings.
My thoughts go out to the students and families of those effected. Stay strong NIU.
