"There are a lot of first times...with lots of different people."
March 19, 2008 is the five year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Five years. My entire college career and a great deal of my high school career. Five years and over 100,000 lives lost.
So today, today I sat/died/laid there with 74 other people to remember everything we’ve lost, everything we’ve done, and everything the world has experienced because of this war. Today we died so that hopefully many others wouldn’t have to.
I know this makes me really idealistic, and the war is not going to end any time soon. But I feel like if we stop talking about it and accept that there is no end, then there will never be an end. Every generation before us has had to fight to stop a war; I’d really love to be the generation that stops war altogether.
I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out today, both the people who were part of the Die In and the people who came to calm me down and support me. This event has been my life for the past three or four months, and it’s a surreal experience to get up from something like that and see the people I care about. I know it was cold, and I know it was uncomfortable, and it means the world to be that you were all there.
We did something today. And I don’t know how many times people can honestly say that in their lives. We actually got up and did something to change the world. I’m pretty open about hating the state of America right now, but I get up in the morning hoping that I can fix that, that one day I can wake to a world worth being a part of. It was amazing to get up in the morning and be able to meet my friends to do that.
I’m not sure why this event makes me particularly sentimental. Maybe it’s the perspective of it all. We sit for an hour and think about all the lives lost and lives ruined, and it forces me to confront where I’m at in my life. It makes me realize what I care about, and it’s not an experience that I get to share with people very often. I have my friends and then my “political friends,” and the two never really meet. And today they did. I got to show people what I actually do, what people the “political one” in the group entails and what I want to do with my life.
I know that I don’t open my world up very often, but this was my chance, and I want to thank everyone who accepted the invitation. Welcome to my life and my passion. I hope you enjoy your stay.