Sandy Hook Elementary

Dear Friend,

As you may have heard, an awful and unthinkable event occurred today. At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, a gunman took the lives of twenty seven people, including twenty children and himself. We heard about this terrible shooting during class this morning and it put a huge damper on our day. We don't normally get worked up about news stories, but this one has left us quite upset and it has definitely put life into perspective for us.

There is a lot going through our minds right now. To be honest, our first thought after hearing about this was "Seriously?" We didn't believe it- we were in denial. Many people had mentioned there was a "shooting," but none of us knew exactly what happened, so hearing that twenty seven people  had lost their lives was a huge shock to us. It made us realize that a "shooting" isn't just another "shooting." This then brought up the question- are we desensitized by news stories? Does hearing about crimes after crimes on a daily basis make those situations less terrible? While reading articles on this school shooting, we came across an interesting fact- out of the twelve deadliest shootings in U.S history, six of them have happened over the last five years. Ever since Virginia Tech in 2007, the two of us have remembered quite a lot of massacres and it makes us wonder why they seem to keep happening...but we digress.

Hearing about this shooting has brought up a lot of feelings. We are angry that this one man chose to turn a place that is supposed to be safe into one that is now forever tainted by such horrible memories....we are upset that many families will be mourning instead of celebrating during this holiday season...and we feel sick thinking about the fact that some children have completely lost their innocence and that some will never experience prom, graduation, college, weddings, etc. And worse of all, although we've sent good thoughts and prayers to Newton, Connecticut, we feel hopeless. We could never imagine experiencing such a tragic event at our own school. It make us shudder at the thought that some of our teachers or classmates could  lose their lives in a matter of seconds. As we said earlier, this put things into perspective and it's sort of a reality check that we never know what can happen. Right now, we're having trouble putting our thoughts into words, but if there is anything you get out of this post, it should be that you make sure you let those close to you know that you love them each day. Life is short..even though it is the longest thing we've got.

Our hearts truly go out to those effected by this incredibly dreadful event.

Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Rachel Davino, 29
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana M Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Dawn Hocksprung, 47
Madeline F. Hsu, 6
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Lauren Russeau, 30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria Soto, 27
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison N Wyatt, 6

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together,put me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever .” -A.A. Milne

Yours truly,
Kylie and Catherine