In 2008, I was still in high school and was not yet a student at NIU. I did, however, live in Sycamore, and I had always loved NIU and Dekalb. On Feb. 14, I was on my way to the music building for a guitar lesson when I got a frantic call from my teacher telling me not to enter campus and to turn around and head home. He told me there had been a shooter, and I remember mostly being confused at first. It wasn’t until I got home and turned on the news that I realized the magnitude of what had really happened. It was surreal to see the small town you grew up in suddenly being shown on television, the whole country seeing those horrific events unfold. Feb. 14 was a terrible day for DeKalb and NIU, but I have personally seen over the past five years how it has strengthened the community in so many different ways, bringing everybody closer and more united. Forward, together forward.

-Spencer Tritt

I was a second-semester freshman at NIU in 2008 and that day I was extremely excited to be celebrating my first Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend, who is now my husband. I was walking out of a class in Davis Hall that, for one of the very few times, happened to get out early (3:15 p.m. release time ended up at 3:05 that day).

I was walking home to my dorm in Lincoln and was walking past the library and noticed a lot of people standing outside mentioning someone hearing gun shots near Cole Hall. I had no idea what was going on, so I headed home. I had no idea I was walking into a crime scene. People started running out of Cole Hall covered in blood and screaming. A police officer came up to me and told me to get out of the area because there is a man with a gun.

I ran away from Cole and by the time I got to my dorm, I made one phone call to my parents to let them know what happened. That was the last time I was able to use my phone since the signal got jammed with everyone trying to make a call. I eventually got a hold of my boyfriend online to let him know what was going on (he was a sophomore at UW-Platteville at the time and was not with me). My friend from back home in Milwaukee ended up racing down here to pick me up since I didn’t have a car. It was the longest two-hour wait for her to get here. People were running around the hallway in my dorm yelling and screaming and just wanting to leave.

To this day, I still cannot “properly” celebrate Valentine’s Day because it’s a day of mourning for me. I go to the presentations of the wreaths every year and say a prayer for the fallen victims and I will continue to do so this Thursday.

I have learned to always celebrate Valentine’s Day 365 days of the year because you never know when the time will come. Cherish your loved ones, tell them you love them whenever you can, and let them know how much they mean to you. May the souls of the five! fallen RIP.

-Laura Skelly