Never Forget

November 7th and the 3 days that followed will forever be in my memories. I live walking distance from Borderline, I have to pass it to get out of my neighborhood. I used to go to borderline once a week for almost a year. I started going because a friend of mine went and I figured I live so close I'll give it a try. Line dancing wasn't my thing but I learned to really enjoy it going there and I made some new friends along the way. My friend and I got disconnected a few months before the shooting so I stopped going, but I new many friends that still went there every week and new one friend that even worked there. I was awoken up that night to all the helicopters and my phone blowing up. I just couldn't believe right down the street from me, there was a shooting. My anxiety was through the roof because I knew my friends were there that night and I felt so helpless. I texted all of them and told them my house is open if they need anything. All made it out but one. I didn't sleep that night and the next day was so surreal. I didn't know what to do and then all of a sudden the fires were threatening us. Hearing my friends name on the victim list the next day put a huge hole in my chest. I couldn't believe it and all I could think about was her family. Then that Thursday night my aunt and uncle and their 2 dogs got evacuated from oak park to my house and us plus them equaled 7 people and 6 dogs. They slept in our living room on the couch. 4am Friday morning we all got evacuated from my home. We all packed our cars and left to Moorpark to a friends house since we couldn't take 6 dogs anywhere else. We were in 5 cars following each other down the 23. We returned home later Friday afternoon but it was so smokey in Thousand Oaks still it was hard to breathe. We didn't have cable or internet for the rest of the weekend either so online homework was hard for me. I had to work the next day and we were still wearing masks and trying to help the community the best we could. But for those 3 days I didn't sleep at all. It wasn't until a week later I finally returned back to school at moorpark college where everything finally hit me. Thankfully all my professors were so forgiving and even one of my professors held a talking session during class that day which really helped. But that's when everything finally hit me. I went to the memorial site when it was on the corner and put flowers down and signed the wall. I have to drive past that wall eveyday when leaving my house and it was definitely hard seeing it there eveyday. It took my a while to go up to the memorial site once it was moved to the building, it was just surreal at that point. It was 3 days that were blurry but also so clear and I'll never forget them. I'm originally from Minnesota and my friends and family back there donated to both Borderline and the fire funds. But having something so tragic and losing someone to that so close to your home then almost losing your home in such a short time was the craziest experience I think I've ever been through. But it was so nice to see this community come together the way that it did and no matter what I'm glad I call Thousand Oaks my home. As we approach the one year mark, I hope we can look back as a time of coming together in a time of need.

Shannon M.