I wrote this ten years ago on Feb. 15th, 2008. I think I’m sharing this because so many others are also remembering in their own ways. ——————–

It’s hard to think right now of what to say to express all of the emotions that ran high through me yesterday. At the time the shooting occurred, I was at work at the Art Museum in Altgeld Hall (that castle tower logo you’ve probably seen on the news, is the building I work in). I had been at work for an hour, when some students filtered into the gallery and were talking quietly amongst themselves. I wasn’t really paying much attention at first, until I heard a girl out in the hall say something about a shooting on campus and mentioned the Holmes Student Center. I immediately spoke to one of my co-workers and told her to go tell the director of the museum. Within seconds she returned and said “we need to start locking the gallery doors.” We did this, and the director ushered in the students that were out in the halls. I grabbed my coat and my laptop and belongings. We moved into the office and those doors were locked as well. There were about a dozen of us in the office, and frankly, …it was surreal.

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NIU

I was at NIU that day. I was in that room six hours before it happened. The question of “what if?” It still haunts me. I remember that I was walking home and cop cars raced passed me. I made a joke that Neptune probably set off the car alarm again, and that’s when somebody told me there had been a shooting. I just ran after that. Everyone was running. People were stuck in traffic, police cars were racing. It will never be a sight I’ll ever forget.

NIU

It was February, and I was sitting by the circle fireplace in Neptune Central when all of a sudden the students at the top of the stairs yelled to us that there’s been a shooting at Cole Hall. At that moment we were paralyzed. We were not sure what to do. Should we run? How we handle this? We walked up to where we saw the windows, but we didn’t see anything. Then we saw the police force barge in. At that moment I realized this is real. This is happening right now. This is sheer chaos and panic and I don’t know what to do. Other then try to console my friends who were in a state of fear and shock, all I wanted to do was let them know that I was okay, first, rather then any speculation they would find on the news. I was able to get ahold of my parents right away, which I was very thankful for. Then we were brought into the dorms after all of Neptune Hall had been put on lock down. I was in a room with students I’d never seen before.