Virginia Tech’s rural campus may feel a world away but really only 500 miles, and two interstates separate our schools. (Julie Siegel/DP)

This is the piece I didn’t want to write. I was all geared up for my second to last entry –controversial, lyrical, and lighthearted. But my heart is anything but light today. I was going to write about the culture of promiscuity — but now even sex seems trite.

Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you reflections from a student deeply touched by the tragedy. I want this campus to feel, to stop, to be shocked like so many others are. And not to forget. I want this campus to wake up — this is not 24 or Halo, this is real-life, real-time, and real-person horror. I come from under 300 miles from VA Tech — these were my friends. The aviation buff from my neighborhood, now a senior there, is fine, but I can only imagine the beginning of his nightmare.

Shootings on an urban campus will never amount to the mass carnage that occurred on Monday. Many debates will surely follow about Virginia Tech’s preparedness, but for now, we sympathize with those who could not have predicted the country’s worst massacre occurring on their campus.

We must take the time to identify with these kids-and not to let their heartbreak, their life-changing Monday fall into our backdrop. 33 dreams snuffed out, 33 families receiving a phone call, 33 more reasons why we ask the tough questions of life. How could something like this have happened on a pristine college campus? Are we immune to it? What made the shooter break? Why couldn’t they stop the second rampage? Why does suffering of this magnitude happen to innocent people? We just celebrated Easter and Passover, but where is God in all of this? What is important in life if things like this can happen?

More than the bitter weather, more than our pet issues we fight, and more than even our graduation woes, we must impress these questions in our hearts. And say a little something for those who won’t ever see their last week of classes. Penn stands behind the Virginia Tech victims, as this is our highest and most noble incarnation of our shared humanity.

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