Tragedy

On 4/20/1999, Columbine High School tragedy hit.  I had the opportunity to help students and families cope with life after.  Having several students who had brothers, sisters, and friends attending Columbine at the the time, our school was on shut down and sitting with several students concerned for their family members and friends brought lots of tears and emotions.  For several weeks after I helped them go through the painful memorials they went to for their friends.  Trying to bring some normalcy and comfort to their lives.  The toughest was helping them gain trust again to come back to school.  On 09/11/2001, I had the opportunity to help students and families cope with life after this traumatic event.  One of my students sat in my office after talking to his uncle who was trapped above the fires and his uncle had just enough time to call his nephew to say goodbye.  The sadness of that day will always stick out in my mind.  Tsunamis, Hurricanes, Bombings, School shootings, Movie theatre massacre’s and many more.  Through this I have learned the world is an un-safe and  un-predicatble place.  You must treasure life for as long as you get the pleasure to live in it.  Never forget the one’s who did not.  Most importantly, there is a lot more positive in the world than negative.  I hope most of you can live for the positive and cope with the negative.  The final part of this, is for me to remember, my friend and colleague Alex Teves.  Alex died while protecting his girlfriend and friends during the Aurora movie theatre shootings.  We all came together to help each other get through the pain of this tragedy.  I only hope the city of Boston can do as good as job as other cities in helping bring some normalcy to their world.