Now this. This is just breathtaking.

I was in my sophomore year of college—just two years removed from the witch hunt that immediately followed the shootings in Columbine High School. In high school I fit pretty snugly into the profile that fear mongering newscasters and panicked school administrators had built for this supposed “new breed” of killer. I scoured the Internet for the latest tidbit of news, read every profile I found on Harris and Klebold, and scoffed every time I saw Doom on television. I did this because I knew what would have happened to me were I still in high school after this. It was personal.

Make no mistake, by no means to I condone what happened there. And I mean every bit of vagueness in that past sentence. I do not defend murder. It was a horrible tragedy. And yet, I know how the killers suffered because I suffered too. There but for the grace of—whatever—go I.

(I’m linking to the post on Mr X Stitch because Noelle Mason’s own portfolio site is just the kind of Flash site I thought we’d outgrown by now.)