Where were you 10 years ago?

Today, April 20th is the 10 year anniversary of Columbine. Can anyone believe that it has been 10 years since that horrible day? I personally can’t believe it. I remember that day very clearly. I was only 15 days into my new job as a principal consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. I was working in Republic Plaza - the tallest building in Denver. People in the office started talking about what was going on around noon. After that we all started gathering around our computers reading the news that was poring into the various news websites like CNN and MSNBC. It was a very difficult day. We were not affected personally by the tragedy but we knew families that were. We had friends of friends who had children in the school. Thankfully none of them were physically hurt but the mental trauma they experienced is probably still with them to this day. Patty was near Columbine when the shooting occurred. She was in Littleton visiting a friend of hers and she and Zack got caught up in all the traffic that resulted from the whole situation. She wasn’t scared or anything, but she was very anxious to get herself and Zack out of the area. Columbine caused a lot of introspection and thought within the local community. I think some of the lessons of Columbine have paid off and there are many different programs in the local schools to prevent something like this from happening again. I am continually amazed by the extent to which they take “bully proofing” in Zack’s school. The program that Cherry Creek Schools have in place to prevent students from being picked upon is ingrained throughout some much of the schools activities. Given that Zack is a smaller child and marches to the beat of his own drummer, I am very pleased that this kind of program is in place. I think it will prevent him from falling prey to any kind of bullying. Have we as a nation learned enough from Columbine? I really don’t think so. It was just two years ago that the worst school shooting ever – Virginia Tech occurred. Why couldn’t Columbine have been the end to it all as opposed to just another black mark in this long saga of kids killing kids? Moving away from that dark subject – our day has been normal in many ways but also very tough in other ways. It was normal in the fact that Zack had school and Sylvan and I had work. It was tough in the fact that I had a lot to deal with mentally and emotionally. The day started very rough in that fashion and it has only been this evening when I have managed to resolve things. At one point my mind was so much on fire that I decided I either had to go to the gym and beat the crap out of myself or I was going to have to sit down and drink an entire bottle of wine. Thankfully I decided on going to the gym – which I did around 8PM. I can’t believe how good my workout felt. I did have one really good piece of news. I had to run to Target while Zack was at Sylvan. While I was there I decided to try on some shorts as my supply of shorts for the summer season isn’t where it should be. I was so pleased to see that all my working out, biking riding and walking has paid off. I have lost an inch around my waist! Yippee!! That is our story for the day. Here are pictures from the “year of portraits project”. We took these while we were out eating dinner at Chili’s.

We hope everyone had a great day! Thanks and peace to all!