we're stronger than we think

People killin', people dyin',

Children hurt and you hear them cryin'.

Can you practice what you preach?

And would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us,

Send some guidance from above.

'Cause people got me, got me questionin'

Where is the love?

Why does it take a tragedy to make us grateful for what we have?

That day terrified me. How could the world be so mean? Only the day before I had learned that a classmate had taken his own life, and now these bombs exploded into my life, shattering my little naive world into broken pieces of hope, love, and happiness. How could I survive in such a scary world? I didn't know that boy. I didn't know those three people that died from the bombs. I didn't even know any of the hundreds, maybe even thousands more who were wounded, both physically and emotionally. But they still changed me.

The first thing I did when I got home from school was run upstairs, find my 18 month old brother, and give him a giant bear hug. I didn't want forget what's really important, you know? He wrapped his little arms around my neck and hugged me back, even though he didn't know why I was so upset. His eyes sparkled and his baby-toothed grin reminded me that there is still love in this world, no matter what happens.

The bombs had not only shattered my little world, but they broke loose a floodgate of tears. I talked to my mom and cried and cried and cried. By the time the tears stopped and my mascara was in black streaks down my cheeks, my mom had calmed me down. She eased the pain and terror I felt, coaxing it back in behind the hastily patched walls at the heart of my little not-so-naive-anymore world to wait until the day when that little part of my heart gets too full again and spills out my eyes.

Sometimes life gets cut short. And when it does, we do what we always do. We weep. We hug. We bond together to give whatever support is needed to buoy up the broken hearts of the nation. And we live on.

We wipe our eyes, though the tears often insist on falling anyway. We square our shoulders and resolve to face each day with a stronger determination to truly live. We will live so that "our dead will not have died in vain." We will live so that their legacies will not be buried with them. We will live so that the world will know that together, we are strong.