School Shootings and The Consequences

On Tuesday , April 20, 1999 The Columbine High School massacre occurred. Two students who go by the names Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who took part in the massacre , killing 12 students a teacher and wounding 23 others as well right before they both committed suicide. They said this was the fourth deadliest school shooting the United States history , right after the Bath School disaster , the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the University of Texas massacre. I believe that massacre's all have something in common , they are all provoked by bullying and high school cliques. Even though movies and video games play a huge role, to me bullying is number one on the list. Bullying in almost all generation take part in something we all wish wouldn't happen. If someone is being teased and criticized by color, race and gender , people are bound to retaliate. Some teenagers today take offense in how other people treat them, and judge them simply by what they wear, where they live and who they are friends with. In all of these massacre's bullying played a huge roll in all of these massacre's. The shootings all resulted in an increased emphasis on school security, and a moral panic aimed on Goth culture, social pariahs , the gun culture, the use of pharmaceutical anti-depressants by depressants and violent video games. I think that if there is a sign of bullying in any school teachers, counselors and principles should take action immediately

Lily's Road

Once upon a time there was a young girl who goes by the name Lily. This girl always felt out of place with her own kind. She always tried to make herself fit in by always following what other people did. When she was younger she always did what her parents told her to do. They always wanted her to be perfect like she was their robot. So without any arguments she did exactly that. She would go to school come home and did that same routine for years. As she grew older her parents knew that their little girl would be all grown up soon and have to understand the meaning of love and life. They couldn’t keep her away from the world any longer. It was like an urge for her to go out into the real world and meet new people and understand new and exciting things. When she hit her teenage years that’s when Lily finally realized that she couldn’t keep her feelings hiding. She started junior high and started to make friends. She was still doing what her parents told her to do but not so much anymore. She made some new and exciting people. Her parents started to get nervous and scared because they didn’t want their little girl to grow up. They wanted to keep her hidden from the world so she wouldn’t have to experience pain, jealousy, envy, greed. They thought they were trying to protect her but they weren’t, in order to be a human being you have to go through those stages in life to understand how to deal with certain situations. Lily knew it was time to put her foot down and say something to both of her parents. She told them that it’s not fair that other kids can have fun but she can’t. Teenagers shouldn’t be put to work like Lily was, and she finally stop up for herself. When high school rolled around the corner, Lily started to rebel a little. She hung out whenever she wanted to, came and went as she pleased, and also started hanging out with the wrong crowd. As the days turned into months Lily started getting bad grades and didn’t even go to class. She couldn’t see it like her parents did so they sat her down and spoke to her about it. She did what every normal teenage would do, she ignored them and went about her business like she has been. She was blind by what the influence of her new friends had on her. Her parents then transferred her to a private school because they had enough. They didn’t want to see their little girl go down that path they were petrified of. When Lily started her knew school she was nervous and afraid to meet new people but she had to do it. When she started her new school the people there were extremely nice they included her in everything and this was new for her because she had never met anyone who was that nice to her. Her grades started going back up and her parents told her that they were going be a little easier on her since she has been making extremely good progress. As she grew up she has matured in ways nobody would think of and she became that young women that her parents are very proud of her.

My Life Growing Up

Growing up it was very hard for my family . It was my mom , my sister and I living in a small apartment . Things never came easy to us as they do now . My mom fell in love with a man who she thought she would spend the rest of her life with . My grandparents despised him but as always she followed her heart . My mom got married to him and things were going extremely good for the two . But as time went on their relationship became really rocky . Her husband started to go out more , come home at all hours of the night . On December 5, 1987 they gave birth to a little girl named Erica . She was the cutest thing in the world or so I have been told . Things started coming together , but after the birth of my sister who was born on August 22, 1989 things started to get worse . He started with coming home even later or not coming home at all . My mom started to suspect something . He gut feelings were telling her something wasn’t right that there was someone else and as always she was . My mom divorced him because she thought without him being in our lives he couldn’t hurt her and most importantly us . It was rough in the beginning but no matter what she always pulled through with us . She always made it fun . Even thought we didn’t have a lot we had one thing and that was a lot of love . It was very hard for her to support her two children . She always put me and my sister before her no matter what the case may be. So as the months turned into years my mom finally went on a date with a high school friend . He walked into her job and asked her to lunch but little did she know was that they would have clicked perfectly . She thought it was an innocent lunch date , she didn’t think it was serious or he would call . But he did , he wanted to catch up , and meet her two children . He did everything for our family , he took us places , bought us stuff . Even though money didn’t matter to her . She finally felt important for once in her life and so did her children . Our family was being acknowledged . So things started to get serious and finally he asked her to marry him and she said yes . I knew from then on out things were going to be alright . Even though he isn’t my real father I still love him like he is . I have to say he showed me how to live life to the fullest and he made me understand what the meaning of love and life is . I look up to my mom a lot . I have to say she is my role model and she showed me to be strong and to be wise on how to chose a guy . To this day I have not seen my father in over 18 years and I am going to be 21 . I don’t wish to see or speak to him he put my mom through a lot and I don’t think no women should suffer like my mom did . That is why she is my role-model she helped me become a stronger person today and I thank her and my father for raising me to become a good-hearted person .

My Future

As a young child I had so many dreams of what my future would consist of . I always use to pretend that I was getting married and how my wedding would be like . When I was born it was always my mom , my sister and I . My dad was not in the picture . He left us when I was about 2 and my sister was born . So I had no father figure in my life for a few years . I always knew that I wanted to be something to help my community and help others in need . So therefore I wanted to be a veterinarian . I loved animals and to this day I still do . As I got older into my teen years I still wanted to pursue my dreams so therefore I took action . Right around when I started to graduate high school I applied to many colleges that had my major and finally found one college . It was the County College of Morristown where I tried to pursue my goal in life . But as usual all of my friends were doubting me . Telling me that I couldn’t do it and putting negative thoughts into my head . So I started Morristown and withdrew only after a few months because I thought at the time school was not for me at least at the time . All I wanted to do was hang out and have my fun . After a few years as I grew older , wiser and became more mature . I decided it was time to go back to school and pursue my career goals . I then came to a conclusion veterinarian maybe wasn’t for me but I knew in my heart psychology was . I am very interested in the mind and want to help people with their problems because I know I am so good at it . All my friends come to me with their problems and I always find the right solution for them . I don’t mean to sound cocky but I am always right about my friends issues . I always tell them I am going to start to charge them because they always come to me . I know that when I get older I want to open my own practice and become an independent women because I feel no women should have to depend on a man . When I get older I know that I will be extremely good at what I will be doing because I basically do it now . I love helping others and I hope I can give back to my community in every way possible.

Camping Trip

I have been planning my first camping trip with my friends for as long as I could remember . My three friends and I had planned this camping trip for a couple of weeks and we were all excited to go . We planned this trip for August 15 through the 17 . We all packed like there was no tomorrow . If anything I believed we over packed . It was our first camping trip so we all wanted to make sure that we had everything we needed . We had a tent , grill , blow up beds , food and much more . One of my friends had brought her video camera to capture every funny moment that was going to happen during this weekend of adventure . On August 15 we had woken up bright and early , got the car packed and went on our 2 hour drive to the campsite in Pennsylvania . When we arrived it was 12:00 in the afternoon and that's when we decided to video tape our first funny moment . It was us pitching the tent . I could actually say for four girls going camping for the weekend we did an amazing job . We made lunch and waited to see what the rest of the day would lead us , but little did we know a storm was heading our way . After a few hours of setting everything up it started to pour . we all ran in our tent and waited until the rain had past us . The rain past us and we all made dinner and relaxed played a few games and went to bed early because we had a long second day ahead of us . As we were sleeping I had heard people rummaging through our garbage or so I thought . When we woke up our food and garbage had been eaten by animals . I thought it was the funniest thing in the world . When we woke up the next morning which was bright and early we rented a few bikes and went bike riding on the trails . The scenery was so nice and it was so peaceful . I never thought nature could be so relaxing . Our second day was going perfect . We then made dinner and then went to the lake to go fishing . I could never think four girls camping would make it and have a great weekend like we all did . All I kept thinking was that I didn't want this weekend to end . We met a lot of nice people and we all bonded and got away like we all planned since we didn't get to gone vacation this year . When Sunday finally came we were a little upset that the weekend had flown by so fast , but we were also so happy to finally go home and eat a nice home-cooked meal . I have to say my experience camping couldn't have been so much fun if it wasn't for my friends to be there with me . We all had an amazing time and I would definitely do it again .

The Year 2005

I could remember it just like yesterday when the ball dropped and I was out for New Years Eve . I thought it would be the best year of my life . I had a job , great friends and it was my last year of High School . I had everything I had always wished for . On March 21 , 2005 was the day that changed my life forever . It was a stormy and gloomy day . I had just gotten out of school and was on my way to work . When I got out of worked I glanced at my cellphone and there it was , missed calls from everyone I knew . I had no idea what was going on . I was getting very nervous . I had the sweaty palms , shaking hands and nervousness . As U was driving home I got another phone call and I knew this was the phone callIi would never want to get . It was from a very close friend of mine . I picked up the phone very hesitant not wanting to know what information I was about to recieve . So as I slowly answered the phone , thinking to myself should I or should'nt I answer . I finally answered . It was about my friend Dave . "Dave got shot" "Dave got shot" that's all my friend was saying . I could'nt believe what she was saying , so I laughed and said stop playing around . But she said it again and that's when I knew she wasn't joking . I came home ran upstairs and locked myself in my room . I didnt want to be bothered , I just wanted to be left alone . He was like a brother to me and I could'nt believe this really was happening to me . I just lost my brother , my bestfriend and the only person that got me through anything and everything . Those words still to this day replay in my head "Dave got shot" . I was in denial for a very long time . I was very depressed for a while , blaming myself . The night before he had past away he had called me because he was having problems and wanted to come over and I told him no . I should of said yes , I could of prevented all of this and he would still be in my life to this day . After a while I started to forgive myself and understand that he is in a better place . I am going to be 21 in a few months and I told myself if I could go through this I could handle anything . I still visit him and the thoughts of him will never fade away .