December 12, 2012, I was 12 years old sitting with both of my parents in our living room watching the news in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting that took the life of 26 people, twenty of those people being innocent little babies that were dropped off at school that morning not knowing they'd never get to walk out.
October 1st, 2017, I was 17 years old sitting in my living room and watching our local news when it hit even closer to home. At a country music festival here in my hometown, a man stepped out on the 32nd floor of his hotel room at Mandalay Bay and shot over 1,000 bullets, killing 60 people and wounding of 400. I knew people that knew people who died that day. One of my close friends was supposed to attend that music festival.
February 14th, 2018, I was 18 years old at work when I heard of the most fatal high school mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a suburb in Miami, Florida. The nineteen-year-old had walked into the school and murdered 17 people and injured 17.
May 24th, 2022 a mass shooting took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers, and injuring 17.
One might think, outside of them being mass shootings, what do these have in common?
Innocent lives. Hundreds of innocent lives. Little six-year-olds who hadn't even graduated from kindergarten yet. High school seniors set for the Olympics but dying as he tried to save his classmates. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends-all torn from lives in the blink of an eye.
We shouldn't have to be afraid to send our children to school. We shouldn't have to look over our shoulders at every public, crowded event we attend. We need change, and we, as the people, will be the step in moving in the right direction toward it.
I have not lived through any of these things myself, so if there is anything that seems wrong etc please do let me know!
As It Was is a book of awareness, a book of love for all the survivors of these horrific tragedies and honoring those who passed in them as well.
This book contains a lot of triggers. Among those are mentions of suicide, depression, anxiety. There is obviously a lot of mention of guns and the shooting that takes place. The scenes in those scenes are very graphic. If any of these things will be a trigger for you, I do recommend you do not proceed into this book as from the very opening line it is very dark and graphic.
Reader discretion is advised.
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As It Was (COMPLETED) (wattys2023)
Teen FictionSeventeen-year-old senior Everly Hope Rodgers wants nothing more than a normal year after the traumatic events that took place right before summer vacation. The hope for normal is short lived as her parents have uprooted her and moved a state away...
