In 2018 there has been 22 school shootings. Each one bringing pain to those around them. Yet our government offers thoughts and prayers as if that will somehow make everything alright. It seems just as one community starts healing another one starts hurting. It’s a vicious cycle that seems to have no end.

Trending hashtags on Twitter have gone from being light hearted to things like #IfIDieInASchoolShooting. This was my response to said hashtag,  “I will be just another statistic on another list of people who were let down by the adults who were supposed to protect us. Why should this be the way I have to think? Why is this the thinking of teens all over the country? News flash, it shouldn’t be! A student shouldn’t fear going to school. Shouldn’t have to worry “Am I next?” Something needs to change, whether it be laws or the way people think. There isn’t just one *snap* and it’s fixed solution. It will take time, willingness, and a hell of a lot of effort.”

I would like to believe that a shooting can’t happen at my school, but the reality is that it could. My mentality each time I walk into school every morning is “Am I next?” How is that okay? In what world should a student have to think this way?

So While our government continues to offer thoughts and prayers, the students who are at risk continue to rally together by holding die-in’s, marches, walkouts, and using their voices on social media. They register their fellow peers to vote, they organize groups of students within their schools who hold meeting with local officials. They are the ones who are going to bring change.

We will continue to shout into the void known as our government. We will call are representatives. We will continue to say enough is enough.