We will prevail! We will prevail! We will prevail! We are Virginia Tech!

Tonight was a very somber night for me. I stopped by Henry's grave today and left some flowers before I headed down to Tech for the vigil. Seeing his Hokie stone, and standing there listen to Taps for the finaly time has helped me come to terms with what happened last year. I will still never forget the few memories I have of my interactions with him. He was a bright kid, whose time was cut down way too soon. He will be missed, he are the words spoken last year by poet Nikki Giovanni, whose speech helped so many of us Hokies move on in our life. Thanks to everyone!

"We Are Virginia Tech We are Virginia Tech We are sad today And we will be sad for quite a while We are not moving on We are embracing our mourning We are Virginia Tech We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly We are brave enough to bend 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 nothing to deserve it But neither does a child in Africa dying of aids Neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water Neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of night in his crib in the home its father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destablized No one deserves a tragedy We are Virginia Tech The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out 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 and 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 will prevail! We are Virginia Tech!"

I would like to thank the Roanoke Times, roanoke.com website for the following media. Special thanks to Josh Metzler, stay strong.





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