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Remembering The Virginia Tech Shooting Of 2007

10 years later:

All I Wanted Was To Be Invisible

The Virginia Tech College Shootings of 2007

Posted By - Bill Petros - April 16th 2017

updated 2023

A Story of Great Sadness

My Heart goes out to all the victims and their Families of this tragic event.

10 Min Read -

The Following is from our Blog archive 2007

The Silence

"All I wanted was to be invisible.

A relatively simple request, it did not involve anyone else; when I'm in a room with another person, I only feel like half myself, with two people a third of myself, with three a quarter. And when I'm in a room full of people, I feel like nobody!

One day we wake up and realize the world sucks and we suck for being part of it. And we try to run away, anything but to face ourselves as we are! Anything to avoid asking the question; why we hate ourselves so much, why humanity hates so much…

They say the truth can set you free- it's a lie, the truth is, lies protect us, lies keep us safe- from the truth. “(The Quite)

The real question is; Why are we? I'm writing this because I keep thinking of the person who just killed 32 people a few minutes from me and injured numerous others! I dont understand "Why do we hate each other so much?"

Why do we hate ourselves so much? Man is capable of such greatness! Yet we cuddle up with our misery and sadness, and we saturate everyone around us with it.

We are all from the same beginnings! We are all living creatures trying to find our place in this massive universe! We are all a part of each other; Einstein was sure of it. (Matter is never indeed destroyed, but recirculated, re-used).

We are looking for love, happiness, for Purpose. We are a part of each other! That energy continues forever , we are an cumulation of everyone before us. And yet we feel no conection to one another. We continue searching for what we are missing, trying to figure out life.

We wake one morning and realize, "The world is screwed , and so are we for being in it!" and there is no escape; you can run as fast as you can in any direction; But we are still here.

The problem is the world goes by too fast for us to keep up. They say that the world spins on its axis at around 1,000 miles an hour, and sometimes I swear I can feel it spinning under my feet!

Why is it when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we are not capable of seeing the beautiful creations we are? We are forever scrutinizing ourselves, judging ourselves, never being satisfied, always wanting more, always disappointed in ourselves and those around us.

Maybe we've just never looked through the right eyes. Never seeing clearly, we have all blurred our visions from the plastic faces we have put on. Oh, but it's okay, we tell ourselves to wear a plastic face, to put on that plastic smile, the world is plastic!

So, we cannot see with any clarity; we are forever broken and weary, stumbling around, trying to find our way.

I can't help wondering if anyone ever feels like this, lost, and confused, waiting for our lives to finally begin! There is a saying, "once you know who you're not, you might then see who you are. "I personally will probably never know who I truly am, and maybe most of us never will, but I do know what we can become, what fragile little lives we have, and how society can alter us if we are not careful, it turns us into people like the University of Virginia student who murdered 32 people and tried to kill 17 more! But only wounding them.

Why is it we strive for greatness, yet we measure ourselves in misery? A girl I know once told me I was a hippy because of my philosophy of loving everyone and everything; at first, I took it offensively like it was an insult!

I have since come to realize that it would be a better place if the world were a little hippier. Why can't we all love one another? Why can't we all genuinely care for every living thing on the planet?

I have one theory: "fear." They say that apathy is evil's greatest ally. I say it is fear, fear has changed the world, and it has changed us! We are all scared and slightly scarred from the fear of this world.

Fear: It starts from very young, our parents putting their fears into us. By 2 or 3, we start having many fears and Nightmares, and then we start school; that's when you really start to see how the world is, the hate that spreads around the schoolyard like a virus consuming the kids, engulfing us. Then after we finish school, it's jobs, and then you see how cutthroat the world can be.

We scamper around like scared tiny ants doing our jobs, letting fear run us. So why is the world screwed up? Because we are too frightened, too scared to do anything about it!

A wise and powerful creature once said, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Yoda - He is right. Are we not all suffering within ourselves, unhappy with our jobs, with love, with our achievements, with ourselves?

And so, it all goes back to the fear of life.

I was once having my everyday problems in my life many years ago, and my father took a look at me and said, "What are you so afraid of?" I just looked up at him like, what! He said, you are a scared little boy. I was about 23 or so at the time. And I just thought to myself, "Whatever, dad." He said, stop your whining and self-pity;

"we are all scared in some way but remember you are a winner; you have already beat the odds of nature, of life just to be here breathing, we as people have won over a million to one odds just to be conceived. That we were all the strongest, the toughest ones, that we had the greatest strength of heart, pushing our way to the front of a colossal pack to be first!"

He said "we are the sum of all the combined gene pools of life before us." (science only recently has proven this) that we all have genes that link us all together." And his final words to me were; "So why are you stopping now, why is it that after we are born, we stop being at the front of the pack (fear) in the beginning we know no fear! He said dig deep within your heart, find your strength, release it, and let it flow; life takes courage and strength."

After years of thought on the subject:

I think it is love that we receive our greatest strength, to carry on in life, love for the things around us, the love for a beautiful flower, the love of a beautiful Woman or Man, the love we have for our family or friends, the love we feel when a child is born.

All we truly have in the short and sometimes tough life is one another. I say we have true magic within our hearts; if we can only just let it out, find a way to release a little magic. Just think, if we all just let out a little magic, how much more beautiful the world and life could be.

Maybe if the student who killed those kids had been shown a little magic from someone, he might not have turned into what he was, what he had become. So, let's all please try and be a little more magical.

Acknowledgment:

My heart goes out to the 32 students and their families of those who lost their lives in the tragic event. And my prayers go to the families of the students whose lives are tragically forever changed.

THE SHOOTINGS:

Details on the shooting:

It took place April 16, 2007, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, Seung-Hui Cho, an undergrad student, and a United States resident of South Korean descent, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others. And another 6 injured from jumping out of school windows to escape the gunfire.

With a Glock pistol and a Walther P22, he shot 33 people and injured 17 others.

Seung-Hui Cho had been diagnosed with severe depression and Mutism. (the inability or unwillingness to speak due to brain damage or a psychological condition).

Seung-Hui Cho was a 23-year-old senior at Virginia Tech. He was a South Korean citizen with permanent United States residency. He was majoring in English.

Possible Cause Of Violence?

Investigations into Seung-Hui Cho's life revealed Psychological and mental illness, depression, and neurological disorders such as Autism and speech disorders and Selective Mutism.

He was placed in therapy during his middle school and high school years as he had been bullied for his speech difficulties. However, these facts have not been able to be verified. Also, some evidence of the allegations of severe ostracizing and bullying in high school for his ethnic background, height, and speech problems.

When he applied and was accepted to Virginia Tech, school officials could not report his speech and other related conditions due to federal laws prohibiting their disclosure.

Seung-Hui Cho had been found and declared mentally ill by a Virginia state justice and ordered mental health services.

The After shooting investigation found a suicide note in Seung-Hui Cho dorm room that talked about Debauchery and rich kids. In the end, just before authorities arrived, Seung-Hui Cho turned his pistol upon himself and shot; he was the 33rd death in this shooting spree that has forever changed us and our world.

This is one of the worst school shooting massacres of United States history and the worst mass shooting incident in US history at the time.

Let's hope that it has opened some eyes, that maybe, some people will take off their masks long enough to see, to have their eyes opened just long enough to observe what's going on, to hear the cries for help. To listen to people, to see what's behind the world we live in and to read between the lines of life, and to think about the words our world is selling! Us.

Thank you for listening.

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