I wish it hadn’t happened.

Like many of you, I have never cared much for Valentine’s Day. It seemed that, while well-intentioned, the singling out of one day of the year to express how we feel about the people we love trivialized our feelings. Lately, I have been forced to re-evaluate.

Our community changed Feb. 14 due to the evil act of one person. Within minutes of the despicable act, however, NIU’s students and staff showed each other and the world what kind of people we truly are. We look after our own.

As students fled Cole Hall in search of help and safety, others rushed to their aide. During the terrifying moments between the shooting and the arrival of police and medical personnel, several first responders took back control of the situation.

Members of the NIU community do not need to look far for role models; we have them all over the place. The truth is we have so many role models on this campus that oftentimes they simply blend into the passing crowds.

We see them everyday and think nothing of it. The guy wearing his hoodie pulled down so low you find yourself wondering if he has a face. The girl beside you that compulsively sends text messages to everyone she has ever met at a pace that would embarrass a supercomputer. Even that guy that never speaks to anyone choosing instead the comfort and isolation his iPod provides. All of them dropped what they were doing to help and all of them are role models.

The horror of what took place in Cole Hall cannot and should not be minimized, but it does not define us as a community. The immediate reactions by our classmates and colleagues are more telling of our collective character than one person’s rampage could ever be.

We at NIU have always been a resilient group and we will remain as such. The pain of our loss is still fresh and the grief we feel will no doubt linger, but we will not succumb to self-pity. We will not let fear dictate our actions and we will become stronger over time.

There was nothing trivial or superficial about how we responded when attacked. We seized the opportunity to transform our feelings into actions when it mattered the most. NIU’s compassion for our own was obvious to everyone and has in turn been reciprocated many times over since that day.

As more information becomes known from the families and friends of the deceased, one common trait seems to have been shared by all five. Catalina Garcia, Julianna Gehant, Gayle Dubowski, Ryanne Mace and Daniel Parmenter inspired optimism in others.

The grief we feel today will diminish over time, but we will never forget what happened. Now more than ever we need to cling to our most ambitious goals. We need to work for positive change in our lives so that others may do the same. Anything short of our greatest efforts is a copout. Do not trade your optimism for a lasting pessimism. To do so is to undermine the memory of our classmates and shortchange ourselves.