I was eating lunch at the food court at my local mall today.

[davsand]

46. Much as I try not to live in fear, I do make a point to check exits.

My uncle was a fire chief on an Air Force base, and he preached that bit of wisdom at any opportunity.

More to the point of your question, I had accepted a job at the local community college about 18 months ago--just before the Parkland shooting. My college aged daughter was really blunt with me about being aware of what was going on all the time when I was in my office. She's like every other kid now, meaning she grew up after Columbine.

About a month later--just as the facts of the Parkland shooting were coming out--I was sitting in my office, editing a bunch of faculty submitted material. All at once, ALL the alarms started whooping, the lights started flashing, and the unit admin assistant came running in demanding I evacuate my office. The fire alarms were going off.

I sat there in my office with sirens blaring, and people trotting past out in the hallway. ALL I was able to think of was that I'd seen someplace that the Parkland fire alarms had been triggered by the shooter so more people would be in the halls, providing more targets. I actually thought about possibly being danger from either fire or a shooter, and I considered for a moment WTF I was doing.

I took my bag and keys with me and left for the day. I did go back in that office again, but I accepted a job offer someplace else shortly after that. (In my defense, it was a really attractive offer.) I never felt safe in that building after.


Laura