Florida State University has been my home for the past five years. Throughout this time, I have witnessed a lot of change. New apartment buildings standing where there was once only dirt, the faces of what was once the incoming freshman class turn into those of graduating seniors, and most noticeably, change within myself as I navigated the transition from high-school student, to college student, and now to post-graduate life.

Despite all of this transformation, one thing has always remained the same. Campus is bright, it is joyous and it is full of life.

Over the course of the past five years, there has not been a day that I stepped on campus and was not surrounded by laughter, activity and the liveliness of the student body here at FSU. That is until April 17, 2025. That is when a shooter came onto our campus and killed two people, and injured six others.

A campus that has never known stillness, has now turned deafeningly silent.

The atmosphere on campus is no longer light and airy, but heavy and looming. While I am extraordinarily grateful to be safe, the impact of this event extends much farther than the physical harm that was imposed.

Last Thursday, what was once a safe and coveted place for many, was ripped away from them. The brand new student union, a hub of activity in the center of campus, is now marked by a senseless act of violence that took the lives of two innocent men — Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba — and harmed several more. A building buzzing with students preparing for their final week of the semester, some for their final week of college ever, sent into panic and terror as shots began to ring out. Students who went to the union to study for exams that day, left behind every belonging they had to run for their lives instead.

This cultivates into a perspective shift. Not knowing whether they would pass their exams quickly turned into not knowing whether they would be alive to take their exams. This is not an experience that will simply go away. This is an experience that will mark the lives of the individuals who were in that building, and the surrounding buildings, forever.

A situation of this nature seems impossible to imagine, until it is your reality. Until it is you that has to shelter in place for over three hours. Until it is your friend that you hope is not working at the student union that day. Until it is you that finds yourself overwhelmed with the feeling of gratitude, but equally the feeling of unease, that you decided to grab lunch at the student union on Thursday, April 10, rather than Thursday, April 17. Until it is your peers and community members who have had their lives harmed or taken away from them just a few minutes from where your car is parked. These are moments and emotions that will never be forgotten.

While this event has caused great turmoil within the community, it has also evoked a beautiful display of unity. The community is hurting, but it is hurting together. Thousands of flowers, candles and hand-written notes line the walkways that surround the union. Proving with great certainty the truth behind what one sign left at the memorial reads: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” And if there is one thing that can never be taken away from FSU, it is the love that radiates through this campus.

Florida State University and the community that makes it so special will not be defined by this horrific event, and will overcome the challenges it presents to us.

But we will not forget, and for that reason, it will never be the same.