Almost a year ago now, I wrote a letter to my students in the wake of yet another shooting, this time terribly close to home.
This week I attended a mandatory faculty meeting on how to survive an active shooter.
What's my profession again? Oh, right. I teach.
When I decided to finally accept the fact that God made me a teacher - when I admitted to myself I wasn't made to be a journalist, a marketer, a PR professional, or any of the other jobs I'd considered - I never dreamed teaching would be dangerous.
I didn't think it would one day feel like just another day when I heard of a school shooting. That I'd be callous to that gruesome reality.
I never imagined Columbine would be merely the first.
I couldn't guess that one day teachers would talk about wanting to keep guns in their desks for protection.
I might have scoffed at the idea that I would need survival training in my university job.
I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me. I might have said America won't let that happen - or Jesus will come beforehand.
Because, really. Shooting up schools? Shooting elementary school children and university students and teachers and professors? Really? Will we be a nation so heinous?
Yes, 20-year-old Meredith. Yes, really.
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