Parkland was exactly one month ago today. Our school did the 17-minute walkout — one minute for each of the 17 killed — along with what felt like half the country's high schools, all timed to the same date on purpose. Stood out on the football field with everyone else for the full seventeen minutes, one minute per victim, and it was quiet in a way that a field full of 1,500 teenagers is never usually quiet. Didn't organize anything, didn't make a sign, just showed up. Some of my friends were way more involved — Marcus helped print flyers. I mostly just stood there thinking about how strange it is that "practice this specific kind of drill" has been a normal part of school for my entire life and somehow this time it broke through into an actual national moment instead of the usual week of news coverage and then nothing. No real connection to anything else going on with me technically. Just wanted it in the record. Some years the backdrop matters as much as the foreground.