A Generation Affected

Not trying to be a Debbie today.  Let me just preface the entirety of this with that statement.

After yesterday's unfortunate stabbing incident at Franklin High in Pennsylvania, I was reminded of the Columbine shooting that happened almost 15 years ago on April 20th of this year.  I remember our classroom doors immediately being locked.  I remember coming home to Oprah interviewing various students the next day.  I remember the days and weeks following where news reporters tried to uncover the mysteries of the teen shooters, Dylan Klebod and Eric Harris.  I remember reading the books about Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall - two who were killed for their faith in Christ.

Yesterday's event immediately took me back to my ninth grade year and the continuous school shootings that began happening one after the other across America.  You may not remember that aspect of the situation, but I do.  I remember it to be what seemed like every week a shooting occurred.  My own high school received threats.  Classroom doors were locked.  Lectures and discussions were had about what would happen if Columbine happened to us.  I write about all of this because it's etched in my mind.  If you were in middle school or high school it was etched in yours too.

I've heard it said many times how certain events of a time period effect that generation.  It was taught all over my History courses.  For the 1930's, it was the Great Depression.  For the children of the 60's, it was JFK's assassination.  The 70's- Watergate.  And for my generation and the children of the 90's, it was the Columbine shooting.  Each event, and many more, have played a major role in how the generation of the time period reacts to life.

We are millennials. The generation born between the 1980's and early 2000's.  The Columbine shooting and the attacks of 9/11 are major events for the Millennial.  The moment the media blew into full force and let us know that shooters entered that school or the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, our trust in others was gone.  Our small world of childhood memories and freedom were gone.  Our trust in others shut down as quickly as the doors of the classroom were locked.  I can easily see how these events have shaped the way we interact with others.  We doubt.  We question.  We don't see the good in people, but we see the bad.  We are motivated by fears at times.  We put up walls and don't easily allow others in.  It takes work to build friendships and relationships. Yet this is who we are, and we are this way as a result of these two tragic events.

I am thankful for the events that have shaped my life.  Though they are hard and have left me feeling unsafe at times, I am thankful.  I am thankful for my God who is sovereign and who is good - my God whose plans go forward, even when a shooter mercilessly runs through a school and planes crash into a building out of terrorist acts.  His plans go forward.