Life is fragile. We are not invincible. We are not immune from patterns of behavior, or patterns of thought, that end up harming us, or even killing us.
The names of those we loved and lost are tentative on our lips. We grieve together and separately, as we mourn a loss in a community that has become geographically stratified across the country and across the world. Most of us return for the holidays, or visit for the summer, but many of us spend months away from the place we once all called home. We are a divided community trying to collectively make sense of a devastating tragedy.
The blows never get easier, the shock is always piercing, and the losses can not be justified, anticipated, or brushed aside. Nor should they be. This, losing those we love, should never cease to be a tragedy, temporarily rendering us gutted and speechless, trying to make sense of circumstances that can never add up.
We are a group of individuals so young, so bright, so full of potential, and each time one of us is wrenched so suddenly from this earth, the resulting cascade of emotion and sorrow is devastating. We are all inextricably linked and so we, collectively, lose a part of us. Holes, impossibly wide, appear in our identity and, though we try to show support, to band together, to bridge the gaps of miles and years that separate us, we fail to reassemble the pieces in a way that completes the puzzle. We are irreparably broken.
To all those whom we've lost in recent years, rest easy. You may never know how loved, valued, and irreplaceable you were, and still are, in this community.
To the NNHS class of 2012, as well as the families and friends of all affected, my heart goes out to you.
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