What Matters Most

Running from the car to the school seemed like an eternity. My shoes were weights. The concrete, thick sticky tar. My mind flashed back to a few hours earlier.

My sister Savannah and I are polar opposites when it comes to our attitude in the morning. This particular Saturday morning, I woke up late and groggy as usual. Savannah was already up singing Taylor Swift at the top of her lungs—of course! She was blowing her hair dry and curling it before she put it in a ponytail with a bow. Today was her sweatshirt day, but she always said if she wore a sweatshirt she had to wear a bow in her hair. I threw on my favorite jeans and a crew neck that I found on the floor, the smell of campfire still lingering from the night before. Annoyed and overtired, I stumbled in the bathroom to brush my teeth. I don’t remember what Savannah said or what I said, but all I know is as I left, I slammed the door shut steam coming out of my ears.

In a huff, I got in the car and drove to play practice. I got out of the car and observed the scene around me.  Something wasn’t right. The silence was so tangible that it pierced through the chilly autumn air.

BANG!

The sound rang in my ears and echoed throughout the empty school parking lot.   I looked up and saw a man crouched in the bushes 500 feet away from me. His eyes were diverted towards the forest. He didn’t see me!

BANG!

This time I saw the gun pointed straight in the air. I was frozen. My mind refused to comprehend what was happening. We had a shooting range close to my high school so I assumed that this man was on his way to the range. Bad things don’t happen in my town. It was just barely voted in top 5 safest cities in America!

BANG!

Confused I stood there like a deer in the headlights. I might as well have had a target on my back as I stood out in the open as the only person within sight of the shooter.  From the doors of the high school my friend Alex started yelling at me.

“What are you doing?? Get inside!!”

Finally, my body and mind aligned and started to process the predicament I was in.  I felt like I was in one of those scary dreams where you try to run but you can’t move fast enough to escape the monster chasing you. Luckily my mind unfroze and my body snapped back into action.  I ran as fast as I could. I finally made it safely to the school doors.  Once inside we barricaded ourselves in the drama room.

Thoughts paraded through my mind. What if Alex hadn’t called for me? Would I be dead? The realization chilled me.  How did I not comprehend that I was caught in a shooting? I presumed tragedies only happened to people in the news.

If I had died, how would I have left the world?  I couldn’t forget the fight with my sister that morning. I never said sorry. I didn’t say I still loved her.  Suddenly the steam from my fuming stubbornness cleared and in that moment, I learned what truly matters most.