Today is the five year anniversary of Columbine. I honestly hadn't thought about it very much until Dateline whacked me upside the head with it on Sunday night. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was a receptionist when it happened. My friend emailed me a link to a Denver news station that morning and said "isn't this in your old neck of the woods?" right as it was starting to unfold. I called my mom and we put her on speakerphone and everyone at work huddled around it while she repeated the reports from the newscasts. Later that week, as I stayed glued to the TV, I saw Al Gore standing in my old church back home at one of the funerals. It was very surreal and very terrifying.

This morning I turn on the news and find Katie Couric coming to us live from Clement Park with some parents sounding all sniffly and emotional. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, she said.

The media scene about Columbine now just makes me ill. Thousands of press swoop in, gather up quotes and interviews with survivors and witnesses, and they fly home and wrap up their packages and their stories. Then they're done. Onto the next bit of news for the day. It becomes a story, not a reality.

Just makes me hurt, the tragedy that happened and the aftermath it brought.