I know Katie already did a post on this, but I’ve been waiting all day to sit down at my computer and produce some posts, promise my friend.

The Virginia Tech shootings shocked me, and caught me off guard. I mean, I know there’s violence in this world, and that gun violence is a huge problem but events like this one still rock me to the core and fill me with outrage, anger and confusion. That the “worst shooting in American history” has occurred this week. What does this say about our world? I just don’t understand the violence occurring, and how people can be so far gone that they rationalize within themselves that walking into a school and shooting students who are just looking to be educated is even an option. I just don’t get it.

I know that this world is full of hate, and violence and so many situations that just do not make life worth living, and it’s things like this shooting that make me question why I’m such an optimistic person. I look at the world and see hope, and I am thankful every day that I live in Canada, I am able to get an education, and as cliché as it may sound, really become anything I want to become. Sometimes, like everyone else in the world, I have a bad day (or week) and I hate my life, but then I stop and think “Sam, you don’t have it bad at all”. I’m reminded everyday that I’m a lucky one. I don’t have to sell my body to feed my children at home, I don’t have to live in Africa and witness violence and killing on a regular basis, and I’ve yet to been hit with a tragedy like the shooting in Virginia Tech.

I was freaked out last week when there was a body found on the subway in downtown Toronto. It touched home for me. I can’t even imagine the situation that the students at VT are in right now. Losing a friend, a teacher, and just the sound of gunshots ringing in their ears. How does one even comprehend this tragedy? Or move on from it?

It is really times like these - even if you aren’t personally involved - that you should be thankful for the horror that is NOT in your life, the situations you have yet to experience (and hopefully never will).