Paloma Thom

December 20: My birth

 April 20: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, storm Columbine
High School in Littleton , CO, killing twelve other students and a teacher, then
themselves.

On the morning of April 20, 1999 two students of Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado open fired on their classmates. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold each brought a
bomb set to detonate once inside the school. Once the bombs failed to go off, Harris
and Klebold, dressed in dark trench coats, entered and attacked students and teachers
at random. After killing twelve students, and injuring over twenty others, the gunmen
turned their weapons to themselves and commited suicide by headshot. This was
significant because it led to other kids, copy-cat killers, trying to blow up their own
schools. School security and student suicide is taken more seriously, and both teachers
and students are prepared in the case of an emergency.

 September 11: Terrorists attack United States. Hijackers ram jetliners into twin
towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth
hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh. Toll of dead and injured in
thousands. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda
terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks.

September 11, 2001 marks the most devastating terrorist attack on the
United States in history. Four planes were hijacked by a total of 19
men. Two crashed into the north and south trade center towers in New
York City, one in the Pentagon, and another heading to an unknown
target crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A total of 2,977 people
were killed of all ages. This is significant because it led to the War
on Terrorism and reinforcement of security for all public enterprises
and government buildings.

 August 25-30: Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf

coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. Americans are
shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all
levels of government are in its aftermath.

Hurricane Katrinas 145 mile an hour winds hit New Orleans on August 29,
2005. It killed 1,700, displaced hundreds of thousands, and affected millions
of people overall. It is one of the most costly, and damaging storms in the
history of the United States. Both local and federal governments were illprepared for such a disaster, adding to further devastation. Refugees went days
before being rescued, many sat waiting with neither food nor water. The
category three storm destroyed hundreds of miles of land, highways, and
human habitation. This was significant because it utterly destroyed New
Orleans, and displaced hundreds of thousands when such a catastrophe could
have been prevented.

 My family and I live on a sailboat. We travel along the east coast, out to
Bermuda, and throughout the USVI and BVI.

 Move downtown with mother

August: Instead of attending St. Andrews for another year of high school, I go
to Austin High.

 July 20: During a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, a gunman
opens fire on the crowded theater in a Denver suburb. Twelve people are
killed and 58 others are wounded. Directly after the incident, James Holmes,
age 24, is arrested in a parking lot behind the theater.

Just twenty miles from the Columbine High School scene, in Aurora, Colorado,
a gunman opened fire on a crowded movie theatre on July 20, 2012. Twentyfour year old James Holmes, a seemingly quiet, socially awkward individual
with a Ph. D. in neuroscience killed twelve people and injured fifty-eight at the
midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises. He first impaired the crowd with
canisters of smoke or irritant before firing with assault rifle, handgun, and 12gauge shotgun. Holmess apartment was discovered to be heavily booby
trapped as well. This is significant because it led to a twenty million dollar bill
devoted to expansion in mental health services in Colorado, as well as several
bills passed and actions taken towards stricter gun control protocol in the state.

 April 15: Multiple bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
At least three people are killed. One is an eight year old boy. More than 170
people are injured

 Two homemade bombs detonated about twelve seconds apart from each other
near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2015. Three victims
died from their wounds, and over 250 were injured. The suspects are brothers
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tamerlan, the older, died in a
shootout with a law enforcement officer and Dzhokar Tsarnev will stand trial
in a matter of months. The two are not connected to a terrorist group. This was
significant because it raised awareness and highlighted the importance of
emergency care.

 February: Switch from Austin High to Garza