A sad state of affairs

I had an interesting conversation with Ty today. First we started talking about college football. Nothing too deep, but he did refer to Fresno State as "Frendzo State" and Texas A&M as "Texas ATM". He cracks me up. :)
Then we started talking about college for him. It's a bit of an ongoing discussion in our house, the expectation that he will go to college, and the reality that some of the decisions he makes now will affect his college choices (football, grades, etc.). That sounds like a lot of pressure for a 13-year-old, but I promise it's not that serious, more of just creating an awareness for him and also the confidence that he is capable of going to to, being successful, and graduating from college.
The other thing that plays into Ty's college choices is that due to his time in foster care he has tuition waived at any state university in Florida. Yeah, baby! Basically every state gives "perks" to kids that have been in foster care and to families who adopt kids from foster care. Part of what Florida offers is waived tuition at any state school. So that's pretty cool for us. It also adds an element to any conversation about college, because money is part of the decision making process. Not that anyone's making decisions, again just more awareness.
Ty and I were talking about some of the schools in Florida and he asked what school is in Tampa (USF). I gave him a little info about it (huge, green and yellow, bulls). And then he asked about Orlando (UCF). I told him a little about UCF as well (big, not quite as big as USF, black and gold, knights, my friend Dana went there). Then he asked me if there had been any terror attacks or gunmen at either school. I told him no (I can't remember any....?) and he seemed satisfied. But it definitely bothers me that school shootings are on his radar as an expected event. Maybe they haven't happened everywhere, but they've happened enough that they're not what anyone would call "uncommon".
I was in high school when the Columbine shooting happened. It was a big freaking deal. Big. Ty wasn't born yet. He was 13 months old when the terror attacks on 9/11 happened. He witnessed violence personally early in life, and violence has continued to echo through current events and news reports throughout his life (news reports which I guarantee no one thought to TURN OFF due to the inappropriate nature of a young child watching massacres on TV) . He sees violent attacks and killings as something to expect regularly. Maybe that's the reality of our world, but it makes me so very sad that my child feels the need to consider that in his life decisions.