Be on Your Toes

Well I'm supposed to write about the book I'm reading, so here it goes. I'm reading Columbine; a book that describes the Columbine school shooting that occured just years ago. The stereotypical depiction of the shooting is radically different from the way the book tells the story. I like how the author, Dave Cullen, tells the story of the shooting through the mouths of the kids who were affected by it. The use of child characters to portray the events that led up to the devastating shooting adds feeling the novel. He speaks through the lives and actions of average high school students who have no worries. They're all just high school students, going about their lives, and one day everything changes. One day they wake up and their lives are not at all like what they used to be. It was not just about the shooters, it was about the lives that were lost, and the families and friends who mourned for the loss. It was about the school; the community. It goes to show how crazy things can happy in the most normal of places.

(Here's my attempt at connecting the novel to everyday life) Imagine a couple of emotionally unstable students bringing guns to Homestead. We all think those types of things will never happen to us, but that's a bad way to think. We all believe that we're perfectly safe, so we kick back and relax. Everyone should be on their toes because crazy things could happen to anyone, at any time, in any place. The same goes for people who text or drink and drive, or have unprotected sex. Nobody is immune to the misfortunes of life. I'd say it's good to be optimistic, but it's bad to feel invincible. I thought about all of these things when I was reading. The portrayal of the shooting by Dave Cullen goes far deeper than the stereotypical story that everyone hears. It was not just about two psychotic kids who played violent video games and decided to reenact one of them in trench coats with rifles. I can't quite say that Cullen's depiction is refreshing because I would hate to associate such a happy and hopeful word with a tragic school shooting, but it really is good to hear the story the way it should be told; through the lives of the average kids who had their lives suddenly and drastically changed by the tragedy. It is my firm belief that none of us will ever be able to truly understand the magnitude of tragedy that can be associated with Columbine until we experience a tragedy of equal proportion in our own lives.