The last two weeks have been nothing but all out, and I’m grateful for that. Late nights, early mornings, and appointments stacked upon appointments. As the first-time buyer credit winds to an end, and we enter the spring and summer markets – typically busier than normal and proving to be the same this year – it’s all out … just like I like it.
Yesterday, I finally had time to reflect that tomorrow – today – was April 16th. Three years ago, April 16th was just another day – classes were in session, taxes had been filed the day before … just another day. But Blacksburg changed that day. Those of you who weren’t in the community might not have felt it quite as powerfully as those of us here, but I can tell you that definitively, it changed. And, I would argue, it changed for the better
April 16 2007 was a horrific day. We all have our very personal stories from that day, and none are uplifting. But I’ve never been more proud of anyone than I was in the days that followed, as a community far and wide came together and held each other. The loss of 32 innocent people was horrific, but out of that you heard people talking about how Blacksburg was a community. We cried with each other. Laughed. Held hands. And we remember.
Are we a perfect community? Absolutely not. Does the same spirit that seemed to be in all of us in the days that followed still exist? Maybe not in such open ways, but I think it’s still there. And nothing brings us together, as a community, more than April 16th of any year.
We ARE Virginia Tech. neVer forgeT. And we thank you.
I have rather watch that tells how he proposed the need for a moment of pain and mix community and the nation in mourning. It turns out he was also one of the first to realize and report on how the gunman had been disturbed during the period a year ago. Regardless of his politics, his vision is right in this or deal all its genesis.
Surely VT is built to win this year; however, We will need to run the ball down their throats and keep time of possession in that game. After that, we need to take care of business with GT and Miami.