A Day of Remembrance

4.16.07

We will neVer forgeT.

We ARE Virginia Tech. 

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We Remember

 

6 years have passed.

 

We will neVer forgeT .

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile.
WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

by Nikki Giovanni


April 16, 2008 & 2009
April 16, 2010
April 16, 2011
April 16, 2012
 

 I would be remiss if I did not recognize the events that unfolded in Boston yesterday. I was following Boston all day- it is such an awesome, life changing event for so many people and I was thrilled with the happiness and excitement surrounding the race. To have so many huge accomplishments marred, the loss of life, all of those injured... I am horrified. Just the Boston events along would be terrifying, but combined with the fact that it was the day before our day of remembrance, well... I was glad to come home to the VT flag outside and a cuddly puppy and kitty.

As a 2013 Marine Corp Marathon runner, and a member of Hokie Nation... I stand with you Boston.

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3.2 for 32 Remembrance Run

On Saturday I was in Blacksburg to participate in the 3.2 for 32 Remembrance run. I have wanted to run this since they started it (in 2009); however I was never in shape enough to run it and didn't want to drive the 5 hours to just walk it. This year marked the 5 year anniversary of our horrible day and it made me so proud that I was able to be there for the run and remembrance.

All of the runners were given t-shirts, bibs to write who you were running for and a balloon. Following a moment of silence, 32 white balloons were released and then all of the participants released thousands of orange and maroon balloons. It was so awesome. (All of the balloons and strings were biodegradable.)

Running the race was so surreal.. running on the course that took us through and past portions of campus that 5 years ago I was literally RUNNING to get to a car to get off campus when we got the all clear following the shootings. We didn't know what was going on out there and had to get to a vehicle as soon as possible. It was all I could think of as I was running in those same places again.

There were almost 7,000 runners and walkers that participated in this event- by far my largest "race". There were many portions along the route that were very tight and everyone had to walk, but the Hokie spirit was strong! Throughout the entire course you could hear shouts of "Let's GO!" and then... "HOKIES!" I loved it. The hills were killer but they were made up for by the portion of the course that went through the tunnel into the football stadium where we got to touch the Hokie stone and then run around the field.

In the tunnel.

 The race finished near the memorial that is on the drillfield - after the finish there was orange and maroon covering the drillfield.

I can't wait to do this every year now that I can run. I can't wait to bring John next year. I can't wait to bring our kids to this. It is an awesome way to remember our 32 Hokies that we lost.

For some more (non cell phone) pictures, check out the Roanoke Times.

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4.16.07 - Remember 5 Years Later

neVer forgeT .

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile.
WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

by Nikki Giovanni




Read my account from on campus of the shootings here.

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again.

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Exit 118B

My favorite place on earth is located on I-81 south exit 118B. 4 years ago today we had a tragedy and April 16th will always be a day for remembrance.

4.16.07 neVer forgeT

We are the Hokies.
We will prevail, we will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.


April 16, 2008 & 2009
April 16, 2010


It never stops hurting.

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Can I Just Say...

H.O.K.I.E.S. HOKIES!

ACC Champs... AGAIN.

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A little over 2 years out of school and one 10 year school loan down! (Thank you first time homebuyer program!) Now.. just one more school loan, the car loan and mortgage to go. The plan is for us to finish paying off my loan to Mazda in November, finish paying off my (big) 10 year school loan next May and pay back my parents for car assistance in June! Next spring's loan payoffs will hopefully even be pushed up some more!

Budgets are worth it my friends.

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Day of Remembrance

Watch this.



I was there.

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4.16.07 - neVer forgeT

Originally posted 4/16/2009

Two years ago, right now, I was huddled in the back of a class building, in my studio. We were on the floor. I had my laptop and was checking cnn.com, msnbc.com and IM'ing with my mom & John's mom. We had no idea what was going on.

It turned out to be the worst mass killing in recent US history- 32 students and professors were killed. Just shot. Out of nowhere, for no real reason. It could have so easily been me. Been John. For some reason, it wasn't.

This is what I wrote that day:
This morning I had class at 9 am. When I arrived students who had passed WAJ (the dorm) said there were multiple police cars and emergency vehicles outside of the dorm. We all assumed it had something to do with the bomb threats of the last few days.

Later on in class we heard a lot of sirens heading towards the other side of campus. At 10 am, after class my whole class headed to our interior design studio on the War Memorial side of campus. There I was able to check my computer/email. At 9:30 am we received an email stating that there had been a shooting on campus.

At 9:50 am we received an email that said “A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows”

At this point we decided not to continue with our class and went around and locked the doors on our building, shut our curtains in our individual rooms. Many students huddled on the floors of their rooms.

At 10:15 we got an email that said, “Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus.”

Eventually from reading updates on news websites we heard that there was the second shooting in Norris.
At 10:53 we got an email that said “In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall. Police and EMS are on the scene. Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter. All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice. All entrances to campus are closed.”

At 12:30 we were allowed to go home, however without the buses running it was difficult- many of us carpooled (I live just off campus) with others that had driven to class today.

The whole thing has been surreal and not knowing exactly what was going on was nerve-wracking. I received so many phone calls, messages, IM’s all afternoon. I called my mom right when I found out about the first incident, however other than that many phone calls haven’t been going through due to the amount of people on the phones.

As far as I know all of my friends are safe, from what we’ve heard all of the students at the campus ministry that I attend have been accounted for, though I can’t say that we will know for sure for awhile.

It was ridiculous. I can't even explain it. Not knowing if there was still someone running around shooting, WHY they were shooting, WHO they were shooting. When we were leaving campus to go home, I got a ride with another girl in my studio.. we still weren't sure what was going on and we had to RUN across campus to get in a car. There wasn't cell phone service because EVERYONE was on the phone.


It wasn't until the next day that we actually knew the extent of what happened. We had a ceremony in the basketball stadium to pray and gather. We still didn't know names of victims, but there was just a huge need to be with other Hokies.. other people who understood what we were (or weren't) feeling.

we waited in line outside of cassell for an hour or so, and then another hour or so inside. and there were thousands who couldnt get in and started to fill the football stadium. in the middle of the ceremony after one speaker recited a poem "we are virginia tech", about how we will move on and persevere, everyone gave her a standing ovation, and then started our football cheer "lets go hokies". yes i am a big nerd, but it made me cry. the feeling that we are hokies through it all and we are all hokies together and will always be. and that we are all in this together and the huge amount of pain caused by 33 deaths is lessened because it is shared by the 30,000 students that are here currently, the hundreds of faculty/staff, and then the enormous amount of alumni.



In the aftermath, we received so much support from so many people.

we have recieved so much support from so many people. ive gotten messages from people i havent talked to or seen since high school, my dads customers are calling him, random news people from home have gotten in contact with me- yeah they want a story, but their first questions are how are we doing down here.

people from every school imaginable- ones i havent even heard of- are leaving messages on the vt livejournal group. texas a&m school of architecture has hung a banner in their school for us. ive gotten emails from people that ive never heard of that got my email off of the wesley leaders page.

it is amazing what is even more amazing though, is that almost everyone wants us to know that their prayers are with us. yesterday at the convocation ceremony a random pastor stood up and requested that we stand and say the lords prayer- while it was a little uncomfortable because im sure there were people of other religions there, the sight of 10,000ish people standing and reciting the lords prayer, or just honoring religion and these people was amazing and an experience to never forget.

We got SO many care packages- from family, from other Wesley groups, and from people we didn't even know. The school had to open up a room where people could go to just get some of these things.. obviously there was no way to determine who should get what. I got a prayer shawl, hand knitted by someone, a handmade wooden cross, cookies, notes, etc.

The community outpouring was ridiculous. We had a huge community picnic.

this afternoon there was a community picninc on the drillfield. i think seriously every restaurant in blacksburg was there with free food. even chain restaurants- dominos & starbucks. edys's ice cream had a truck full of ice cream there. there isnt like an edy's store here, so it must have been just the national manufacturer sent ice cream for us. just small things like that amaze me- how supportive people are. there were thousands of people there. the whole drillfield was full of orange and maroon. it was awesome. i got to look at the memorials. in the front of burrus there is a ring of hokie stones- one for each person. on the stones are tons of flowers and just notes and everything from people. in the middle of the drillfield is a bunch of plywood signs that people have been signing and writing to the victims on. i saw random things like "im not a hokie and dont know any, but i came here from ny to support you all". its crazy.



We had a full week off of classes, but students were given the option to drop or take whatever their grade would have been had the shootings been on the last day of the semester. I continued most of my classes, but it was just SO hard to focus. Luckily there were only a couple of weeks left.

The night of the shootings, my sister completely decided that she was going to be a Hokie. She had been choosing between Penn State (I think?) and VT. Seeing VT and the Hokies on TV or something must have convinced her. The same day we lost so many, my sister joined us.

Last year was so hard for me on 4/16. I went to work, which ended up being a terrible idea. John was still down at school and got to participate in all of the anniversary/remembrance celebrations. I was bombarded with the news websites' articles and pictures. This year is a little better. I assume each year it will keep getting better. But I won't ever forget...


neVer forgeT .

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile.
WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

by Nikki Giovanni



+3 years. It still hurts. 4.16.07.

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Weekend in Blacksburg

Saturday was spent at my most favorite place ever.. Blacksburg VA.

Hokie Stone!

The 4/16 memorial.

We first went to the dining hall and got the best cheesesteaks ever (veggie for me, steak for John) and I got my Mello Yello!! I wish they sold that up here.. well it's probably best that they don't...

Then we went to the academic side- John checked out his old lab to see any new projects and I headed over to Cowgill (School of Architecture + Design) to check out their renovations.


Then it was off to the spring football game!






We ended the day with the Alumni Banquet for Wesley.

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4.16.07. We Remember

Two years ago, right now, I was huddled in the back of a class building, in my studio. We were on the floor. I had my laptop and was checking cnn.com, msnbc.com and IM'ing with my mom & John's mom. We had no idea what was going on.

It turned out to be the worst mass killing in recent US history- 32 students and professors were killed. Just shot. Out of nowhere, for no real reason. It could have so easily been me. Been John. For some reason, it wasn't.

This is what I wrote that day:
This morning I had class at 9 am. When I arrived students who had passed WAJ (the dorm) said there were multiple police cars and emergency vehicles outside of the dorm. We all assumed it had something to do with the bomb threats of the last few days.

Later on in class we heard a lot of sirens heading towards the other side of campus. At 10 am, after class my whole class headed to our interior design studio on the War Memorial side of campus. There I was able to check my computer/email. At 9:30 am we received an email stating that there had been a shooting on campus.

At 9:50 am we received an email that said “A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows”

At this point we decided not to continue with our class and went around and locked the doors on our building, shut our curtains in our individual rooms. Many students huddled on the floors of their rooms.

At 10:15 we got an email that said, “Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus.”

Eventually from reading updates on news websites we heard that there was the second shooting in Norris.
At 10:53 we got an email that said “In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall. Police and EMS are on the scene. Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter. All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice. All entrances to campus are closed.”

At 12:30 we were allowed to go home, however without the buses running it was difficult- many of us carpooled (I live just off campus) with others that had driven to class today.

The whole thing has been surreal and not knowing exactly what was going on was nerve-wracking. I received so many phone calls, messages, IM’s all afternoon. I called my mom right when I found out about the first incident, however other than that many phone calls haven’t been going through due to the amount of people on the phones.

As far as I know all of my friends are safe, from what we’ve heard all of the students at the campus ministry that I attend have been accounted for, though I can’t say that we will know for sure for awhile.

It was ridiculous. I can't even explain it. Not knowing if there was still someone running around shooting, WHY they were shooting, WHO they were shooting. When we were leaving campus to go home, I got a ride with another girl in my studio.. we still weren't sure what was going on and we had to RUN across campus to get in a car. There wasn't cell phone service because EVERYONE was on the phone.


It wasn't until the next day that we actually knew the extent of what happened. We had a ceremony in the basketball stadium to pray and gather. We still didn't know names of victims, but there was just a huge need to be with other Hokies.. other people who understood what we were (or weren't) feeling.

we waited in line outside of cassell for an hour or so, and then another hour or so inside. and there were thousands who couldnt get in and started to fill the football stadium. in the middle of the ceremony after one speaker recited a poem "we are virginia tech", about how we will move on and persevere, everyone gave her a standing ovation, and then started our football cheer "lets go hokies". yes i am a big nerd, but it made me cry. the feeling that we are hokies through it all and we are all hokies together and will always be. and that we are all in this together and the huge amount of pain caused by 33 deaths is lessened because it is shared by the 30,000 students that are here currently, the hundreds of faculty/staff, and then the enormous amount of alumni.



In the aftermath, we received so much support from so many people.

we have recieved so much support from so many people. ive gotten messages from people i havent talked to or seen since high school, my dads customers are calling him, random news people from home have gotten in contact with me- yeah they want a story, but their first questions are how are we doing down here.

people from every school imaginable- ones i havent even heard of- are leaving messages on the vt livejournal group. texas a&m school of architecture has hung a banner in their school for us. ive gotten emails from people that ive never heard of that got my email off of the wesley leaders page.

it is amazing what is even more amazing though, is that almost everyone wants us to know that their prayers are with us. yesterday at the convocation ceremony a random pastor stood up and requested that we stand and say the lords prayer- while it was a little uncomfortable because im sure there were people of other religions there, the sight of 10,000ish people standing and reciting the lords prayer, or just honoring religion and these people was amazing and an experience to never forget.

We got SO many care packages- from family, from other Wesley groups, and from people we didn't even know. The school had to open up a room where people could go to just get some of these things.. obviously there was no way to determine who should get what. I got a prayer shawl, hand knitted by someone, a handmade wooden cross, cookies, notes, etc.

The community outpouring was ridiculous. We had a huge community picnic.

this afternoon there was a community picninc on the drillfield. i think seriously every restaurant in blacksburg was there with free food. even chain restaurants- dominos & starbucks. edys's ice cream had a truck full of ice cream there. there isnt like an edy's store here, so it must have been just the national manufacturer sent ice cream for us. just small things like that amaze me- how supportive people are. there were thousands of people there. the whole drillfield was full of orange and maroon. it was awesome. i got to look at the memorials. in the front of burrus there is a ring of hokie stones- one for each person. on the stones are tons of flowers and just notes and everything from people. in the middle of the drillfield is a bunch of plywood signs that people have been signing and writing to the victims on. i saw random things like "im not a hokie and dont know any, but i came here from ny to support you all". its crazy.



We had a full week off of classes, but students were given the option to drop or take whatever their grade would have been had the shootings been on the last day of the semester. I continued most of my classes, but it was just SO hard to focus. Luckily there were only a couple of weeks left.

The night of the shootings, my sister completely decided that she was going to be a Hokie. She had been choosing between Penn State (I think?) and VT. Seeing VT and the Hokies on TV or something must have convinced her. The same day we lost so many, my sister joined us.

Last year was so hard for me on 4/16. I went to work, which ended up being a terrible idea. John was still down at school and got to participate in all of the anniversary/remembrance celebrations. I was bombarded with the news websites' articles and pictures. This year is a little better. I assume each year it will keep getting better. But I won't ever forget...


neVer forgeT .

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile.
WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

by Nikki Giovanni

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Check!

Woo hoo! We Gocco'd the invitations today!! I'm so glad that they turned out how I was hoping (and that all of the procedures went correctly!). I will make sure to take some pictures and post them eventually.

While doing the invitations, we've been watching the Hokies.. oh boy.. its just the beginning of the 4th quarter and we've already lost two quarterbacks. Yikes. This should make the rest of the season fun. Especially considering this was ALREADY a rebuilding year. My poor Hokies.

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How we Met

In August 2004, I transferred to Virginia Tech to major in interior design. John was beginning his sophmore year of school as well, majoring in mechanical engineering.

Our awesome campus.

A few weeks into the school year, I became friends with some guys from the other end of the dorm hall and they had a friend with crazy poofy hair. (I was not a fan of the hair.)

Who ever told him this was a good idea?

After hanging out as a group for awhile, we found out that we both shared an interest in Christian music, Adam Sandler movies and football (amongst other things).

For some strange reason, we have a million pictures

of me making this face at John- that could be a whole post on its own..

Eventually, after months of being friends and hanging out, it was decided that we were dating (and probably had been for awhile). There was no official first date or beginning.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we met through these other friends because we were going to be roommates? Yeah.. that was fun to explain to my parents.

Because we didn't want the next year's living situation to be awkward for our friends (and soon to be roommates), we never really told them that we were dating, in case we broke up. We didn't lie to them, but we just never told them.

About 5 months later, after we spent every waking moment together (and the roommates knew we spent that much time together) one day one of them jokingly asked me if we were dating. I was like "uhhh.. yeah".. I thought he was kidding me because by this point I assumed they had figured it out. Apparently not.. Oh well- they didn't care.

John and I then lived together (with other roommates) for the next 2.5 years at school, until I graduated.

When I did, I moved here to Maryland to wait for him to finish up. Currently we are in two separate apartments, and are very ready for that to end. Its hard having two houses when for the majority of our relationship he was right down the hall!

Hi Hokie Bird!!

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Engagement Pictures

So, John and I got engagement pictures taken while we were in Blacksburg last weekend. We wanted to have some pictures of us on campus because the majority of both of our families have never been to campus & it was such a huge part of both of our lives.

The pictures are going to be made into a sweet hardcover, coffee table type book, with blank spaces. This will become our guestbook and I'm hoping that having the blank spaces will encourage people to write notes, etc. instead of just signing their name on a line. All credit for the following pictures go to Emily Porter.

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