About 60 of the 330 members of Newtown High School’s class of 2024 will also be carrying the emotional burden that comes from having survived one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history and knowing many former classmates won't get to walk across the stage with them.
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00:00When you wait for this day for your whole life, since you're in kindergarten, you just
00:04can't wait to graduate, and it felt so far away for such a long time, but now it's here
00:09and you're ready.
00:10But I think we can't forget about that there is a whole chunk of our class missing.
00:15And so going into graduation, we all have very mixed emotions, trying to be excited
00:19for ourselves and this accomplishment that we've worked so hard for.
00:23But also those who aren't able to share it with us who should have been able to.
00:27The shooting was kind of like our most core memory growing up, and I think that took away
00:34a lot of the joy that we could have experienced when we were six years old.
00:41And I can't really remember many times before the shooting.
00:46So in that sense, it really did take over those really innocent times, and it really
00:52forced us to grow up so fast when we didn't need to.
00:56The shooter actually came into my classroom, so I had to watch all my friends and teachers
01:02get killed, and I had to run for my life at six years old.
01:08And I know that was really traumatizing for me, and just growing up with having the fear
01:15and the what-ifs of what could have happened if I stayed, because I was going to be next,
01:21but there was a split second where a kid decided to say run, and we did, we ran.
01:28And just growing up with those memories of seeing your friends and teachers dying is
01:36not something anyone wants to live with, no matter what age.
01:39The what-ifs kind of spoil a lot of precious moments, just because you always remember
01:46that they're not there.
01:48So even going to prom, you think, well, what if they were my prom date?
01:54Or what if they were my significant other, or what if they were able to walk the stage
02:03with me, and who would I still be friends with now?
02:06I knew I wanted to do something more since I was younger, when the tragedy first happened.
02:12I wanted to turn such a terrible thing into something more, and that these children educators
02:20didn't die for nothing.
02:22Of course, it was awful what happened to them, and it should have never happened, but I think
02:26that for me, something bigger needed to come out of it, or else it would have been all
02:31for nothing.
02:32It's a way to feel like you're doing something, because we are.
02:36We're fighting for change, and we're really not going to stop until we get it.
02:40The Sandy Hook will always be with me, and I will, of course, share my story.
02:44Even though we are missing such a big chunk of our class, like Lily said, we are still
02:51graduating, and we want to be those regular teenagers who walk across that stage that
02:56day and feel that celebratory feeling in ourselves, knowing that we've come this far.