I Survived High School Never Again Jobs

For the past few weeks, my house has been control central for treatment classroom supplies that people around the state have donated to my teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Many of their classrooms were shot up when a gunman opened fire on Feb 14th, killing 17 of my classmates and schoolhouse staff.

I'm a sophomore at MSD. At the time of the shooting, I had to hibernate in a closet for an 60 minutes and 20 minutes and get evacuated by a SWAT team.

This is my life at present: If I'm non at home, helping my mom manage supplies, I'thousand in counseling, speaking at a rally, or visiting memorials in the park. Then I go on social media to bank check my posts about gun control. In less than a day 1 of my tweets had already been seen past more  2,200 people. Xl-six people had liked it, and 28 people retweeted.

My mom checks on me a lot. Her name is Lisa Glassman.

"Okay, then how are you feeling right at present for existent?" She asks me. "Tell me what's going on in your mind."

A lot is going on in my mind: going dorsum to school; my Twitter life; my activist life.

My friend Alex Current of air understands. Nosotros know each other from theater course, simply at present, Alex is more famous for his activism. He helped start the #NeverAgain movement afterwards texting with friends.

Alex said the movement is a way to cope, non necessarily to grieve.

"As much every bit we are doing all these interviews, nosotros are just kids and we were in that school," Alex said.

#NeverAgain grew from a hashtag to March For Our Lives , scheduled for next month in Washington, DC and around the country. It's a lot to handle.

"There are hundreds of messages at all times. And we're trying our hardest. Nosotros're all and then busy all twenty-four hour period long," Alex said.

We don't get back to school until Midweek. Since we've been domicile, it seems like everyone is part of the motility. I'm speaking, tweeting, and writing messages to government officials. And I'k non even 1 of the organizers.

Students in Palm Beach, Florida, rally in support of stricter gun control in the wake of the February 14th schoolhouse shooting at at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that killed 17 people. Photo: Aaron Glassman/Youth Radio

Like Alex said, "In that location's no central leader. It'due south a squad attempt. That's what's most important. Nosotros'll split up up and we'll say 'this group do this matter, and this grouping do this thing.'"

Marjory Stoneman Douglas Loftier School senior Ariana Ortega is part of the activism, likewise—and she can't believe how fast everything has changed. "Two weeks agone, I was thinking of prom," she said. "Nosotros were all going prom clothes shopping, sending each other pictures. At present all of those things seem then insignificant."

Since the shooting at our school, Ariana says she and her friends accept been coming together via group chats. "We have students speaking most legislative stuff, emotions, plans, everything," she said.

We all have our own ways to cope. Amanda Edwards, my neighbour beyond the street, was in the freshman building where the shooting took place. She'due south kept more private since then, finding comfort in her writing and piano. Her close friend Carmen Schentrup was killed. Amanda still vividly remembers seeing Carmen in the hallway a few days earlier everything happened.

A 2022 Instagram photo of Amanda Edwards (left) and Carmen Schentrup (right) both students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoolhouse. Carmen was killed in the school shooting on Feb 14, 2018. Photograph courtesy of Eric Edwards.

" I remember coming out and seeing her, and she kind of slowed downward a little fleck because she saw me, and she said 'Hi.' And I said 'Hi.' I remember saying goodbye, and information technology was the last fourth dimension I saw her… at least live," Amanda said.

A lot of Amanda'south friends don't plan to go back to school, she said–at to the lowest degree not on the showtime mean solar day information technology's back open up.

" I think I'one thousand a little bit too scared to go," Amanda said, "and my dad said that if I ever get scared during the school day on Wed, or subsequently that that, I'm fine with leaving early and stuff. Because, I hateful, what's the point of beingness at schoolhouse? We're just freaking out half the time, because there might be a schoolhouse shooter coming in."

I become it. I was anxious to go dorsum even for an hour this weekend, to become the stuff I'd left at that place. When the shooting happened, many of united states ran out without our phones and backpacks. I actually felt relief getting everything dorsum. And on a personal level, all the political action is helping me cope. Otherwise, I'd still be in the background, or sitting in bed.

Flowers and signs decorate a memorial at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, dedicated to the 17 victims killed in the school shooting on February 14, 2018. Photo: Heidi Pickman/Youth Radio

But some moments are easier than others, and it'southward hard to explain to people who haven't gone through information technology. I asked my friend Sawyer Garrity what she would say to another teenager who's feeling numb—someone who hadn't experienced a shooting like we have.

"It doesn't feel like information technology could always happen to you until it does. It still doesn't feel real, fifty-fifty if information technology does happen to you," Sawyer said.

I don't know if I'll stay this involved, or what it will experience like tomorrow, once nosotros're dorsum at school. Information technology might be expert that nosotros'll be busy all day, and back together.

But I know information technology will exist hard just to walk on campus.

reyesarinalwas1948.blogspot.com

Source: https://yr.media/news/we-survived-the-parkland-shooting-and-now-head-back-to-school/

Share this post