Semester at Sea – Spring 2007 (Alex Song) On a ship, traveling around the world, at 20 miles an hour

It’s nearly 2am here, and I just read about an hour ago that the worst campus shooting to date occurred at Virginia Tech.

Normally, not a big deal. If I was at home, I’d glance at the TV, shake my head in disbelief, and move on. Being a law enforcement junkie and having an interest in school violence (from a psychological viewpoint), I might even read a few articles about the whole incident, and that would be the end.

But this is Semester at Sea. We have 3 students from Virgina Tech onboard, 2 of which I have hung out with on trips and 1 of which I have gotten to know beyond simple pleasantries.

This act of violence, when everyone finds out about it in the morning, will not only hit our 3 VT students, but it’ll hit all of us in the shipboard community. For some reason, probably due to the VT connection, this has hit me like a sack of bricks. I’m mortified, shocked, confused, and angry that yet another guy lost his marbles and had to pull this shit.

I’m too tired to write anything else at this point, not that anything else needs to be said. My thoughts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy.