Editor’s note: This column is from former editor-in-chief Andrea Duncan. She graduated in 2016 and is studying music education at Texas Tech University.

I sit in the Student Union Building and there isn’t as much movement as normal. This isn’t what campus is supposed to feel like.

Solemn.

Hurt.

Lonely.

These were all new feelings I hadn’t felt on such a high level before. The whole community felt it.

I still couldn’t believe that it happened, but it had.

With the School of Music being connected to the SUB it was not abnormal for groups to play for those around and willing to hear.

With pictures of Soapsuds wrapped in black and blue crepe paper on the TV screens, one of the choir groups came out of the music building and set up to sing.

Everyone nearby gathered around to hear the hymn from the choir to remember the life lost not even 24 hours earlier.

Somewhere in the five minutes of the hymn, I felt connected to every person in the building and every person on campus even though not everyone was there. I was reminded that no matter how busy our daily lives become, it is important to tell those around you that you care about them and are there for them.

Seeing everyone come together to support each other and reach out to people that they don’t know to check on them is so comforting. There are too many examples of the people of the Red Raider community coming together in the past few days to list, but it has been amazing to see all of the love and support.

Normally, I love to see Soapsuds wrapped in red for game day. I wasn’t ready for what was to come of my favorite tradition becoming a symbol of our own loss and hope. I never could have imagined him being dressed to mourn one of our own tragedies.

Times may be dark right now, but we will stand together as a community and get through this.

In today’s world we too often see reports of shootings and negativity surrounding us. For some it could be easy to sit back and think it was absolutely horrible something like that could happen and there is an easy way to stop it. But coming from a community that is hurting, there is no easy way to move on from this.

Every single one of us will remember where we were when we got the news of an active shooter on campus.

Some were on campus in their dorm rooms, in the library, in class, and some were off campus watching the news hoping for nobody else to get hurt. We all went through the same event but had different experiences depending on our lives and where we were when we heard the news.

We are trying our best to overcome this tragic event in the only way we know how: standing together and loving one another as we always do, in the good times and the bad.

Nothing is going to be the same again. Campus feels like something is missing, and there is.

On Oct. 9, 2017 we lost one of the many people who have given up their lives to make sure we as students are safe and don’t have a reason to not pursue the education we came to school to receive. We will forever remember the officer who lost his life protecting our campus for every past, current and future Red Raider.