Op-Ed: A sixth-grader reflects on marathon bombing

By Jordan Zografos, Special to the Gazette

On Mon., April 15, 2013, I was at my uncle’s house. My aunt was watching the news and I saw that explosions occurred near the Boston Marathon finish line. When I heard the news about the explosions, I just kept on watching the news. I thought that this tragic event was sad and terrifying, and it made me worry if there were any other bombs. For all I knew, there could’ve been a bomb near my uncle’s house.

I know that God wants everyone to love one another, but it may take a long time for me to even like the bomber of the Boston Marathon. This event was really upsetting to me. I think that this event happened because a terrorist or someone who was mad at America wanted to hurt Americans at a marathon that is really important us.

I can’t stop thinking about the 8-year-old boy Martin Richard and his family. Martin Richard died and his sister lost a leg. His sister loved to dance. Now she may not be able to dance due to the loss of one of her legs. I hope she will become one of the best dancers in the world. I hope she will have a dance performance and be able to say, “I was a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing. My brother died and my mother was severely injured. As you can see, I lost a leg as a result of the bombings, but I kept on dancing and look at me now. I am standing in front of all you kind and generous people and I’m about to dance for you. I just want to let you guys know that whatever happens to you, keep going to pursue your dream. Thank you.”

I was very mad when the bombs exploded. I kept dreaming of myself as an amazing superhero who would find the bomber or bombers and save the day. I wanted to transport all of the bombing victims to the hospital and help the bomb squads locate more bombs. Unfortunately, all I could do was watch the news. I also kept thinking about who planted the bombs and why he would do this. I wish that the bombs never happened. They made me think hard about all the people that got hurt. The bombs gutted me emotionally.

Then I thought about the teachers at the school. I remembered that Ms. McGuire went to the Boston Marathon plenty of times and I kept wondering if she could’ve been one of the victims. I did not want to go through what the school had to go through when Ms. McCarthy, a faculty member at our school, died from cancer last year.

Ever since the bombs exploded, I keep wondering what I would be doing right now or what I would be like right now if things had been different. If the bombs never exploded, I probably wouldn’t even be thinking about the Boston Marathon. That’s the thing about life. There’s an evil side and a good side. Things are not good all of the time. When something evil happens, we sometimes have trouble understanding why. We ask ourselves lots of questions. We wonder how our life would be different if this event never happened.

The bomber caused a great deal of pain and destruction to Boston and I hope that the bomber will pay for what he has done without getting the death penalty and being tortured. I want law enforcement officials to put him somewhere where he can learn to be a good person and make the right choices. I don’t just want them to put him in jail and not make him learn anything because he might do bad things again and not learn from his mistake. I hope that everyone in Boston and around the world will recover from this tragic event.

Jordan Zografos is a Dorchester resident and a sixth-grade student at the Nativity Preparatory School of Boston in Jamaica Plain. This essay was written as a project for teacher Cara Gallagher’s class.

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