Safe again!

So this week was pretty crazy.  It was the last couple days of classes and then the annual spring-fling and then reading period.

Then on Wednesday one of the students here at university was gunned down while she worked at our bookstore cafe.  The killer then fled.  Campus was shut down.  People made a mass exodus; leaving for home or anywhere that was not here.  Those who could not leave, or those (like myself) who chose not to leave stayed.  

Then tonight, as I was leaving the movies after seeing Star Trek, we got the news that the killer turned himself in!  It was a great way to end a truly epic movie.  Now things will return to some assemblage of normal, though we will grieve for the loss of our classmate.

I, for one, always felt safe here on campus.  The local police and the campus security really made me feel safe during this troubling time.  

Though this event has shaken our university to the core, I feel that it is important to rise above the situation.  An act of violence always reminds us of how fragile life is in the grand scheme of things and we should take some time to reflect on the things and people that are dear to us.  However, we should also use this as an opportunity to live life to the fullest.  Though one of our own has been taken from the path laid before us, we should walk on and honor her memory by treating each day a little dearer, and appreciate the gifts that we have been given.

I believe that the best way to honor the dead is to keep on living.  There is a time to mourn, but they would not want us to mourn forever.  I feel this quote nicely sums up what I am trying to say:

We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears.  We must not demean life by standing in awe of death.  ~David Sarnoff

Rest in Peace Johanna, I never had the pleasure of knowing thee and the world is a dimmer place without your light.