My parents met at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. It's halfway between each of their hometowns. My dad was the front desk worker at my mom's dorm. My dad worked in a lab at the Geography Building. My mom took classes in the Education Building.

When we travel to Illinois as a family, we drive through DeKalb each time - my mom and dad recounting the stories from college, their engagement life and scraping by on such little cash. They point to buildings where they attended classes, the library where they studied and the bus stop where they waited, huddled against each other in the cold.

This morning, NIU is a much different place. Instead of dreams of graduation, excitement of the weekend's basketball game or stupid decisions at frat parties, it's filled with horror and fear.

My mom said on the phone last night, "I don't understand. This kind of thing never happened when we were in college."

I don't understand either.


"What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?" ~Alan Paton