what is it with April?

Seriously. I am saddened now after logging on to Facebook and reading a friend's status message. It said something about a shooting that happened yesterday at Radford University, only about two hundred miles from where I live. I hadn't heard about it, but didn't watch the news last night, and hadn't heard a thing during the day.

Isn't this the time of year where people should be coming alive with happiness since it's Spring? Instead they're coming alive with morbidity.

Radford University April 2, 2009

Virginia Tech Aprl 16, 2007

University of Washington April 2, 2007

Roosevelt High School April 5, 2006

Those are just of the recent school shootings. Here's a timeline for school shootings occuring since 1966. I'm not usually a big fan of Wiki-anything, after having it beaten out of me by numerous professors, but it does offer good timelines for events such as these.

One I will never forget is Columbine High School.

We were stationed at Langley AFB, Hampton, VA, at the time. We happened to be outside enjoying a warm Spring day. One of my friends came running up to me and asked if I'd heard about the shooting that had just happened in a high school in Littleton, Colorado. She knew that two of my cousins attended high school in Colorado, in Littleton. Panic set in. I had no idea what high school they went to so I immediately got on the phone. My fear was assuaged upon hearing that they went to a different school. They had friends attending Columbine though. My cousins knew people affected by this tragedy.

I can thoroughly understand the pent up frustration felt by this time of the school year. I know the feeling all too well. I just don't understand how people can resort to such horrible, drastic measures as taking another's life. There's no excuse.

Sad, very sad.

Now I really must get to workon my studies.