This American Life...

I did a lot of driving today. It gave me time to listen to a few podcasts on the drive to and from hearings. I finally listened to last week's This American Life, Nice Work if You Can Get It. I think it was Act 4 that hit me. It was the story of a girl in California that excelled at UCLA, but in the end it doesn't really matter because she's an undocumented alien. The worse part of her story though was that she's let the fact that she'll be unable to practice medicine affect her feelings of her own self-worth. That's stuck with me all day... My mom and dad always taught us differently and for that, I am grateful. The endnote to her story was much more optimistic thank goodness.

I've grown tired of the news. Tired is not the right word, weary is probably more fitting. Therefore, I'm not aware of all the new developments. I absolutely have opinions about the occurrence, but spouting opinions right now doesn't change a thing that happened earlier in the week.

Today marked the eleventh year of the Day of Silence, instituted in 1996 at the University of Virginia. It's a cruel twist of fate that the national attention has been focused on Virginia Tech and the massacre that occurred there Monday morning. Like everyone else, shock and sadness followed upon hearing about the shooting, but then also the inevitable questions of "why?" that will never be sufficiently answered for the family and friends of those killed and injured.

I came upon the news accidentally. I was checking out BBC while waiting for an election page to load in another tab. I continued refreshing the page in the half-hour that followed (which subsequently became the remainder of the day) and the unreal details emerged.

Wishes for a safe weekend for everyone...