This week was the 13th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. I’ve reflected a lot on that day since moving to Littleton, and even more today, my first anniversary here.
I was a sophomore in high school, and I was sick that day, so I stayed home. I don’t quite remember how the news got turned on, I was probably flipping through channels and saw something, but I watched the whole thing through. I spend the day crying, watching in horror as the terrorized students ran towards the news cameras. I couldn’t understand how someone could commit such senseless violence.
I’ve been taking the kids to Columbine library for almost a year now, many times playing at the park next door. I’d seen signs for the Columbine memorial, but I’d never been over to see it. And I honestly had no clue that the high school was just over the hill.
It was really beautiful. I had no idea it would have that much of an emotional impact on me. The atmosphere was quite reverent as we walked in. Even Erin felt it - she was shushing Patrick. I didn’t know any of those who had been killed, but I it still hurt so much to see. So many lives lost.
Each victim had a plaque with whatever the family felt appropriate to put on it, and one plaque, Rachel Joy Scott’s, had something she had written about a month prior.
“I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all learned to do just that?
