Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tough Day
As an adult, I recognize that loss is part of life. Remember when you were young and you didn't really believe that terrible things could happen to you? Remember in high school how you believed you and your friends would stay close forever?
I went to a small school with just one hundred people in my graduating class. We were a tightly knit group. Some of us were closer than others, but I don't remember any "Mean Girls" type stuff. Our graduation was held in June of 1990 and we all went off in different directions for college. It was the end of August, for most of us the first week of our collge classes, when we got the terrible news. Our beloved classmate Christi had been the victim of the Gainesville serial killer. In just three days this man had brutally murdered 5 people.
Today this killer is sentenced to die. After 16 years of waiting for justice, we will finally see the lethal injection administered at six o'clock this evening. I am not going to the prison. I am going back to my old school. While the media focuses on the killer, I will be back at school where my memories are vivid and bright. I will focus on Christi and her love for life. I will tell about our time together and the fun we had. I will look through old pictures and yearn for the simple joys we took for granted. I will collect the stories and some day they will go into my scrapbook, where Christi will forever be a 17 year old girl, filled with promise and excited about her future.
I went to a small school with just one hundred people in my graduating class. We were a tightly knit group. Some of us were closer than others, but I don't remember any "Mean Girls" type stuff. Our graduation was held in June of 1990 and we all went off in different directions for college. It was the end of August, for most of us the first week of our collge classes, when we got the terrible news. Our beloved classmate Christi had been the victim of the Gainesville serial killer. In just three days this man had brutally murdered 5 people.
Today this killer is sentenced to die. After 16 years of waiting for justice, we will finally see the lethal injection administered at six o'clock this evening. I am not going to the prison. I am going back to my old school. While the media focuses on the killer, I will be back at school where my memories are vivid and bright. I will focus on Christi and her love for life. I will tell about our time together and the fun we had. I will look through old pictures and yearn for the simple joys we took for granted. I will collect the stories and some day they will go into my scrapbook, where Christi will forever be a 17 year old girl, filled with promise and excited about her future.
# posted by Tracy @ 10:24 AM 
