Hokies...

I heard about the Virginia Tech campus shootings last night, but that was still when news just came in, so details were still rather sketchy, and eventually i fell asleep before finding out what actually went on.

Then this morning i heard over the news how bad things were, and it really troubled me for some reason. I don't know anyone from there, and neither have i visited their campus before. In fact my knowledge of VTech is limited to watching the UNC-VTech football game at Kenan Stadium and gathering that their marching band performs the hokey pokey (cos that's their nickname, the hokies) at half-time; and concluding that they must have a pretty good bball team cos they frustratingly swept the season series against us. If i'm not wrong they're relatively near (by American standards - maybe a couple of hours away Northwest) to UNC as well, since they're just in the next state up near the Appalachians.

My views on gun control aside, it's a real unfortunate incident, to put it very lightly, and i can't imagine what the students there must be going through. Maybe it strikes closer to home than the average S'porean cos i've experienced American college life in a school quite like theirs (good state school located outside of any big built-up urban area, good sports teams - and both in the ACC to boot, tremendous school spirit etc) and so i can identify somewhat, i dunno... The thought that a gunman, and a fellow student at that, can just come along and cause so much carnage among his peers and teachers is so surreal, so hard to grasp; and yet this did happen, and there are thousands upon thousands directly affected as a result. Gosh. So anyways, even though none of you will read this, my prayers go out to you Hokies...