To the outside world,
We are still recovering.
When I think of Virginia Tech, I think of the best decision I ever made. I think of all of the nights I have spent running around campus, the nights I should have been studying but decided to spend Downtown with friends. I think of Saturdays dominated by football games and Sundays spent hiking on nearby mountains.
However, we have been shoved into this dark place; we have been generalized, judged, and "othered" by our nation. We have been let down.
We are a strong community. We have been shaken and rattled by tragedy numerous times before, but as we always remind ourselves: "We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail."
We have been in this recovery process for almost a decade now. Still, we attempt to pick up the pieces and refashion the way that people perceive the two words: Virginia Tech. Our community has only become stronger and more united during this interminable recovery process, while our public perception has only continued to diminish further and further into opacity.
"What is going on at Virginia Tech?" People have begun to question. I'd like to tell them about all of the great things our students and faculty in conjunction with the greater New River Valley community have been working on. We are Virginia Tech- we are working on finding a cure for cancer, we are searching for solutions to eradicate AIDS, we are building self-driving vehicles, we are improving the quality of life for people who haven't access to clean water; but sadly, we must resort to our somber rhetoric of loss and of hope. "We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail."
No one asking wants to hear about the groundbreaking research we are doing. They don't care about how we are Inventing the Future, they simply care about how we are inventing front-page news.
The posters of Nicole Lovell's face have come down from posts across campus. The tape that once held the paper up as a sign of hope still remains. They have been replaced by signs directed at the media. These signs ask the media to respect the privacy of our students, and to direct questions to Blacksburg Police Department.
I recently ran across a reporter on my way back into my residence hall one afternoon. He was on his cell phone, setting up his camera, which was directed at the building in which the one of the accused perpetrators lived - albeit, the same one that I have grown to call home.
"I'm looking at his dorm now." he said to whomever was on the other end of the phone call, "Did you know this was also the dorm where two of the shootings happened?"
I quickly rushed past, as I hadn't the desire to speak with him, speculate facts, or share my opinion on the matter. Somehow, everything brings us back to "the shooting," or as we tend to refer to it, "April 16th." It's deeply frustrating. It seems as if we will perpetually exist under this shadow that the events on that day created.
I don't want the name of the university in which I attend to become synonymous with mass shootings, beheading, missing girls, or whatever the next event may be that brings the media in droves back to Blacksburg, invading our privacy, disrupting our lives, and stirring trouble.
This is not Ferguson, we do not need the media as a channel to spread our message to the rest of the world. As has been described, we are dealing with a loss of life. We are trying to come to terms with the fact that among us lived two people who are accused of committing a most heinous crime. We are trying to support our community in any way we can. We are doing our best as a university who did not ask to be put into this situation, however:
We are still recovering.
This letter is an update from someone on the inside. We want answers, even more than you do. We want justice. We want all of the things that you want, whether you might be in Texas, California, or Mississippi. Moreover, we want our recovery process to be over. Yet we know that may never happen. We may never fully recover. We may exist under this cloud of suspicion and austerity for the rest of time.
We want our campus out of the public eye, and we would like very much to continue our daily lives and resume the process that undoubtedly will not soon have culminated. We ask for your respect and your support;
We are still recovering.
As it seems to be my duty to resort back to our somber rhetoric of loss and hope;
We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail.
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