The shots that rang out over Virginia Tech’s campus on Monday morning will continue to reverberate across the entire country for a long time to come. At colleges and universities, the magnitude and nature of the massacre at Tech has struck a particularly raw nerve. Here at Harvard we know the pain of losing one of our own; we cannot begin to imagine the devastation of losing 33 all at once.

More horrifying than simply the heartbreaking loss of life is the sense of violation that comes with this type of unconscionable act. Much like the 1999 Columbine shootings that occurred in the familiar hallways, cafeteria, and library of a community high school, the massacre at Tech took place in a place of enlightenment, tolerance, and learning, a place that is supposed to be safe. As a society, we have become numb to murder on the battlefield or on anonymous city streets, but when a college campus is the scene such carnage at the hands of one of its own members, it is all the more shocking, somehow more real.

As students, we are inundated with the wise words of professors and parents urging us to take advantage of our years here. We have a unique opportunity, they say, to take risks within the nurturing confines of the campus community before plunging into the real world. Monday’s incidents throw this perspective into sharp relief: The distinction between the real world and campus life becomes arbitrary once we are reminded that no person or place is immune to real tragedy.

At Harvard, like at other campuses across the country, students have been trying to fathom the horror of watching a fellow student stepping into a classroom and brandish a gun, or receiving a text message that a friend was shot. Such efforts have proven futile. All we can do is send our thoughts and prayers to our peers in Blacksburg and hope that Virginia Tech’s recovery from these grimmest of circumstances will heal our faith in humanity, which the shootings so devastatingly wounded.