Words Fail Me

All day today I have thought about what I wanted to say on my blog to you tonight.  And all day long I have come up empty.  Words fail me.  I don't have words that can comfort your grieving hearts, that can ease the pain and suffering, or that can help make things feel normal again.  For those of you who were friends with Ally, your lives are different today than they were a few days ago.  And for those of you who didn't know Ally, although it is in a different way, your lives are different today too.

Dealing with grief at any age can be difficult and may even feel overwhelming.  As a teenager, when you are already facing so many different stressors, the death of a friend, classmate, or fellow high school student can completely shift your outlook - even if only for a short time.  My heart ached watching you deal with such sadness.  I wished that I could take your pain away, but knew that in spite of this terrible tragedy you would show your strength and your compassion.  I am always in awe of the strength and compassion I get to witness in my students and times of tragedy allow it to shine through even more brightly.

Whenever bad things happen I have a phrase that I find myself repeating (silently in my head) over and over again and that is "Look for the good."  When bad things happen no matter how big or how small, goodness follows.  I saw so much goodness on Friday - people hugging one another in support, stopping what they were doing to listen, setting aside differences to find common ground, or understanding that other things needed to take priority over scheduled meetings and plans.  No, none of the "good" took away the sadness and heartache over the tragedy of another Kilbourne student's death, but the good was there and it gave me hope.  I hope that in your own life when something bad happens you will be able to experience and see the good too.

Last week I was talking with Mrs. McDaniel about an old episode of The West Wing (my favorite show of all time which most of you have probably never seen and, as scary as this is to me, may not have even heard of before) when President Bartlet was giving a speech following a tragedy at a college.  The words from his speech continued popping in my head as I tried to figure out what to say tonight and so I decided to close with a quote from part of that speech in the Season 4 episode...

"The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."