In the Memory of Angels Gone Too Soon

As this year progresses and I see myself landing into a new phase of life, joining a medical school, I can't help thinking of all those who couldn't make it. It's hard to not think of those one forty one school children, lost to terrorist attack in Peshawar, who would've been promoted to senior classes and those who would've passed out of school altogether, stepping into a new chapter of academic life, just like me. The brain continues to struggle to absorb the gravity of how children, wrapped in the purity of their innocence, as young as six year olds, were shot dead with bullets piercing through their young chests, robbed off their youth, their future and all their dreams which yearned to be fulfilled. It's time like these when the irony hits me and I realize that you don't always have to know someone personally to sympathize, mourn their tragedies with them and keep them in thoughts forever. Merely the common nationality we held, and more significantly, the bond of humanity we shared, was enough to connect with them in a way that it was impossible to not undergo their suffering with them. It's been one complete year of the brutality's aftermath and to this day, the remembrance of what I feel has been the gravest loss, ever, shakes the ground beneath me and takes away a part of me. One year ago today, clenching hands and with fearful uncertain stares, humanity died right before us. One year later, still undergoing trauma and numbness, every fragment of humanity that is left in me clutches the intact sanity and wishes to inject sympathy into everyone who seems to have forgotten it. Mourning alone is never enough because as the extremist rhetoric is rampant, the heinous crimes dwell in the background of our cries. It's imporant to recognize the hate that is breeding, while not engaging into it. It's imporant to learn love and teach love. It's imporant to understand that only profound love can drive out hate. It's important to stand side by side because love and togetherness is all that binds us, it's all that heals.