As classes resumed at Virginia Tech this week, current and future students had some serious choices to make. Could they keep their mind on schoolwork? Would they return next year? Was returning to normal even a possibility?
The choices were most pressing for graduating high-school seniors like Tommy Carroll, a senior at T.C. Williams. As the country was gripped with the events in Blacksburg last week, Carroll was coming to a decision about which college to choose. He had narrowed it down to Virginia Tech and the University of Georgia. In the end, he chose the University of Georgia.
"I won’t say that the incident had no impact on my decision, although it wasn’t the only factor," said Carroll. "Walking into a situation like that would be difficult, and it would definitely have a major impact on my freshman year."
Carroll said that the extensive media coverage of the tragedy also had an influence on his decision.
"I kind of felt like the media made me feel like I shouldn’t want to go there," he said. "They blamed the administration for not alerting students in time."
Returning Virginia Tech students were faced with more immediate choices about how they would finish out the semester. School administrators have given students an option of keeping the grade they had before the shootings or working through the rest of the school year. For Matteo Del Ninno, who was on his way to classes at Norris Hall when the campus shut down last week, the familiar experience of going to class is a therapeutic experience — even though he has decided to take the grade he’s already earned.
"It’s still really hard to think about school," said Del Ninno, a junior from Alexandria. "I’m basically going to classes to show support."
Del Ninno said that he and several other friends collected money to purchase a Xbox 360 for a classmate who is recovering from gunshot wounds in a Blacksburg hospital room. He said that everybody in Blacksburg has come together in an effort to begin the healing process and move on. Part of that process, he said, meant returning to life as it was before April 16.
"Yesterday I went out and played volleyball, and it was fun," he said. "For lots of people here, it’s been so long since we’ve done anything resembling fun."