Tragedy.

"I feel different about the situation cause they were engineering students. When you become an engineer it's like you enter a secret family or society."

I received this text from one you last night.

The other day I mentioned playing poker with my friends. At one point I looked around the table and noticed all of us wearing our engineers rings - a sense of camraderie struck me.

Here's the deal - as an engineers we have been through a common battle together. We are survivors of an extremely difficult process called an engineering education. In addition, we, together, serve a common purpose of using our engineering skills to protect society. As a result there is a strong common bond between us, whether we've ever met each other or not.

What happened yesterday is horrific from every angle. It is a tragedy not against engineering students, but against humanity. We all feel pain and compassion for everyone involved. But, yes, that pain is a little deeper because some of the victims and the survivors are engineers - people who have never met, yet with whom we share a bond.

I have an aquaintance who teaches engineering at Va Tech. Whenever we meet at conferences we sit down and catch up with one another on what is happening at our campuses. She has been in my mind for the past 24 hours. Let's keep everyone in Blacksburg in our minds for now.