To everyone who is thinking and praying for us and our families,

We, the undersigned, would like to thank you for your prayers. As you have often mentioned, the room Jesus prepared for us is a pretty good place. It’s nice enough. And the company- while young and immature- isn’t bad. But to be honest, we would prefer to be back at home with our families, in our rooms.

We can’t help but wonder how our lives would have turned out. We’ve seen enough to know that life wouldn’t have been perfect for us. But there are a few things that make us wish we weren’t here, as nice as it is tries to be. Things like graduations and proms, musicals, hearing that we were accepted to the school we really wanted to go to and tailgating there the next fall. We’ve thought about what we would have done for a living when we got older. Just for fun we’ve put Aunt and Uncle in front of our names. There are some concerts we would have loved to attend, and movies that aren’t animated we would have loved to see. We can hardly imagine what being in love, and what (you know) would feel like. And, as hard as it is to believe, we have even wondered about what it would be like to have kid of our own.

Nice as it is here, it’s not as good as it’s cracked up to be. It’s not as good as being home. And I think- I know- our parents would agree.

Oh, and to get to the reason for this note. As you know we are a very diverse group. But we share one thing in common that none of you have ever experienced. Each of us has looked into the eyes of the person who was about to take our lives. And all of us are certain that the look we saw in his eyes had everything to do with what he was carrying in his hands.

So, after you’re done crying and praying, and sitting still for those moments of silence, please spend some time trying to do something about what our killers were carrying in their hands. That’s what killed us. While we are not naïve enough to think that these efforts will stop the flow of people entering the special room Jesus has prepared for us. It will certainly make it less crowded.

Thank you,

The victims of school shootings