After the Parkland shooting,
I found myself saying "it felt like it could've been us."

After the CMU shooting,
I found myself saying "thank God it wasn't anyone I knew."

After the Oxford shooting,
I found myself saying "every time it's a little closer to home."

And those words have all stuck with me.

Because the first time maybe it was just a high school just like mine,

But the next time it was a college where I was likely to go and where my friends went,

And the next time my cousins went there and I'd visited the area 20 times,

And the next time my Uncle and cousins had just left the mall not ten minutes prior,

And I find myself thinking,

"Next time I don't think I'm going to be so lucky."

"Why do we live like this?"

"We don't have to live like this."

"There doesn't have to be a next time."

"Stop there from being a next time."

"Please. Stop there from being a next time."