April 30, 2019

Finally, the day I had been waiting for: the last day of classes. From the beginning of my spring semester to the end, I worked every day juggling two jobs, an internship, and being a full-time student. It is safe to say I was exhausted and ready for the semester to end. I was also extremely anxious and excited to start my new internship with C&A Industries in Omaha, Nebraska. With a few doors closing and new doors opening, I was excited about continuing my professional development journey.

Besides it being the last day, it was seemingly just a normal day. I headed to UNC Charlotte’s campus around 12:30pm and as soon as I walked on campus, I knew it was going to be an amazing day. The weather was beautiful and I was overwhelmed by the positive energy that was radiating off of each student I passed on my way to class. I remember laughing with my friend Kylie in my first class, conversing with my peers in my second class, and before I knew it I was walking to my last class of the day: statistics. As I sat in my statistics class, I started having an internal argument with myself. On one hand, I knew I needed to go to the library to study for my exams but on the other, I just wanted to go home and enjoy the rest of my day. I thought about what I wanted to do for the entire class period and I kept having this gut feeling telling me to just go home and the library will always be there tomorrow. I finally made my decision the moment I was walking out of class; I was going to go home and just study tomorrow.

I walked out of Fretwell around 5:15pm, jumped into my boyfriend’s car, and we were off. We stopped by our favorite Mexican restaurant after we left campus to eat a quick dinner. After we left, we were on our way home. As we were driving, we saw six police cars speed past us heading in the direction of UNCC. It concerned us, but we didn’t think too hard about it. We finally made it to the light that is directly in front of campus, and we saw a bunch of people in front of the school, two helicopters swarming the area, and a line of police cars on campus. I immediately checked the news, and I saw, “Active shooter on UNC Charlotte’s campus.” My heart dropped. Shortly after, I received an email from my school that I never thought I would read. “Run, Hide, Fight.”

“Lock the doors and turn off the lights” and “Hide under the desks” were only a few examples of what the teachers told me to do in case of an emergency over the years. What the teachers failed to warn us about were the chilling text messages we had to send to our friends and classmates to make sure they were alive, or the phone calls from our family members that flooded our phones to make sure we were safe. They never taught us how to deal with the aftermath of a crisis. No one told us about the endless stream of uncontrollable tears set off by the amount of grief in our hearts, or the crippling anxiety that sets in the weeks to follow. Nothing could have ever prepared thousands of my fellow classmates and myself for the journey to recovery we were about to endure.

I will never forget April 30, 2019, for it is forever embedded in my mind as one of the worst days of my life. My heart will forever mourn the loss of my fellow classmates. I will continue to hope and pray the other victims find the peace they deserve. As the chancellor said, “Niner Nation has united together, and now we will rise together…Rising together requires embracing our grief and each other, allowing the memories of April 30 to propel us forward one step at a time. Niner Nation rises, but we will never forget.” Through this tragedy, my love for UNC Charlotte has not and WILL NOT fade. There is nothing (and there will never be anything) finer than being a Forty-Niner.

Rest Easy, Ellis and Riley.