Where were you on December 14, 2012?

Twelve years ago, I was in kindergarten. At the same time, a certain 20 first graders were attending Sandy Hook Elementary School.

When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be a football player. Maybe one of those 20 kids wanted to be president, a teacher, or even a football player, just like me.

When I was in kindergarten, twelve years ago, I was told I had my whole future ahead of me. Twelve years ago, today, when they were in first grade, 20 kids’ futures were ripped away from them.

At around 9:30 A.M., the first shots in the “Sandy Hook Massacre” were fired by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who made his way to a classroom after murdering two teachers and wounding another. He would make his way into two classrooms, killing 20 students, aged 6-7. Along with those 20 students, six adults were killed.

There were 26 total deaths, not including Lanza’s suicide. That is a fact.

The school had brick walls and locking doors. That is a fact.

By the end of the day, there were 26 families that would not see their loved ones ever again. That is, also, a fact.

As I sit in my room writing this story, I have a picture of myself from first grade framed and set on the top left corner of my desk, collecting dust. Somewhere out there, near Sandy Hook, there are parents who hold similar pictures of their children in their houses. Those pictures never seem to collect any dust.

It’s a grim reality that we live in, where school shootings are deemed heinous, and yet they occur to this day, devastating the lives of hundreds. A grim reality, where after the Sandy Hook incident, the Senate blocked a bill that would make firearm background checks universal, to prevent mentally-ill people like Lanza from ever having a gun. A grim reality, where fortification of schools cannot convince some kids that school is safe. We still fear, even when living in a castle.

Despite all of that, I think there’s still a lesson to be learned from the remembrance of this day. A lesson of gratitude.

Today, I’m a high school senior. Today, those 20 kids would have been in their first semester of college. In June, 2025, I will graduate from high school. In June, 2024, they would have graduated from high school. All that time I spent stressing on college applications, they would have done the same a year prior. Maybe I would have even gone to the same college as one of them, taken the same classes and hung out in the same places. I guess we will never know.

We, the next generation, face many challenges today, including the ongoing fight to stop gun violence. Almost every problem conceivable weighs heavy on our minds, including the prospect of going to college and finding a job. But at the same time, we are alive, and at least we have the ability to fight for our future.

Sometimes, I think those kids from Newtown, Connecticut look at us and sigh at the way we let our problems weigh us down. I have a feeling they would probably live our lives a lot better than we do today, because they know what having, and not having, a future, means.

So yes, today marks a remembrance of a grim chapter in American history. But it can also mark the start of a stronger sense of gratitude in our lives.

A lot of times, we never know what we have, until it’s taken away from us. Well, once life is taken away from us, like it was from those kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we don’t get a second chance.

Live life to accomplish those dreams you had, because they aren’t dead yet.

Live life to be happy, and make others feel the same.

Live life in gratitude. Live it to make a difference.