It's a running family joke that I correlate everything good that happens (particularly sports related)with some event from OU's 2001 football championship. My only defense is that the entire football season that year was the defining event of my undergrad experience. I still remember the cars driving up and down Lindsey St., honking and trailing flags, after the Nebraska game and the conference championship. There's a box in my closet that still has the streamers I caught during the post-championship celebration in the stadium.

Last night, I was watching BBC World News and they paused on a long shot of the overflow crowd of Virginia Tech students gathered in their football stadium during the convocation. Kids the same ages we were, dressed in their school colors, riveted to the jumbotron. It looked so familiar, until the camera zoomed in. Until the reporter's voice over cut out so you could hear the extent of the silence. No one should have to have a memorial service be the defining event of their college years.

God bless, VT.