April 16, 2007

This post is a day late and was supposed to go up yesterday, but I ask all my blog readers to pause and remember the 32 people killed at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007.

I had just returned from a trip visiting UVA when the news of this story broke. I was only 2 years out of college and I saw so many people I went to college with in the faces of the victims. One young man in particular jumped out at me. His name was Ryan Clark or "Stack" as he was known by his friends. I never knew him, but his picture and story captivated me in a completely unexpected way. Ryan was an RA in the residence hall where the first life in this tragedy, that of 19 year old Emily Hilscher, was taken. As a resident adviser, he walked over to investigate what was going on and make sure his residents were alright, was shot in the neck and killed. A bright young man, whose smile could apparently light up a room, who spent summers volunteering at a summer camp for special needs children, who was a month from graduating with a triple major and intended to pursue a PhD in neuroscience, gone just like that. Simply because he went to go make sure everything was alright.

I don't know why Ryan affected me the way that he did. I obviously did not know much about him, but as I said it was his picture and smile that captivated me most. The more I read about him the more I could see that the world lost an amazing young man. The world lost 32 amazing men and women that day. Lives snuffed out too soon for no reason at all. I felt helpless like most of the nation and wanted to do something to help the grieving friends and family and to make sure the memory of these students did not fade as the years go by. So I decided to honor Ryan in a very unconventional way. I made a video, using pictures people submitted to his Facebook memorial page and newspapers around the country, quotes from online tributes and messages left for Ryan. The purpose of the video was simply to remember Ryan and his life.

I could never have imagined the response that it got. It hasn't reached Susan Boyle fame, but 13,000 people have viewed the video and for those 3:30 second they remember Ryan. I have received many emails and messages about the video over the years, including a CBS news broadcaster who informed me that he had played the video for Ryan's mother and sister, strangers from around the world and a close friend who informed me how the video was shared with all Ryan's fellow Marching Virginians.

To this day, I still can't explain why exactly Ryan touched me so much considering I never met him. Maybe it was the smile, maybe it was that he reminded me of classmates I knew, perhaps it was the knowledge that in his 22 years on this earth he accomplished more than some people will in a lifetime. Just like Ross Almedinne, Jarrett Lane, Matthew La Porte and Lauren McCain and all the lives taken that day. Pause today and remember them. Say a prayer for their families and challenge yourself to give and do more with your life. That is Ryan's legacy to me.