My Interview With Kim O'Hara
As we sat in my room, one Tuesday afternoon, Kim began to tell me about that very day that Littleton was changed forever. She was 17 years old and a senior at Christian Fellowship, a private school in Littleton. Kim had lived in Littleton for about three years before previously living in Mexico. Her home and school was approximately five minutes from Columbine High. I first asked her if she knew anyone that had gone to Columbine High and she said, “I knew quite a bit of people that went to Columbine. There was one guy, Javier Suarez. His family lived with us... He was a freshman at Columbine when it happened. That was one person that was directly involved in my life that went there. I had a few other friends...Nicki Cain and Jessica Freedmen...people that I knew from different churches and from work.” Kim also mentioned that she knew some of the students that had died. She said, “The closest person to me that died was Cassie Bernall. We used to go to punk concerts together and just hang out. Her younger brother Chris was my brother’s really good friend and so there was a connection there with their friendship. We also went to the same youth group on Sunday nights and I didn’t really know that many people there cause it was a different youth group than my church and so I hung out with her a lot cause I knew her. And there was another girl, Rachel Scott, who I did not know directly but her parents went to my church. So it hit close to home just because it was people who were actively involved in my church and it was their daughter. Another guy was Corey that passed away. He worked with me at Just For Feet.”
I began to ask Kim about how she found out about all this going on at Columbine. Kim explained that she was eating off-campus during lunch with her friend Amber and they had heard it all on the radio. They were quite shocked and could not believe it. “ We didn’t think it was such a big deal at the time cause we really didn’t know that much,” said Kim. Kim described the town to be in at state of “massive chaos.” They ended up having to go back to their school where they watched the news on television and prayed for the people. Kim said that “It was just total disbelief” and that many people were wondering “Is there someone that I know that is hurt and there is nothing we can do about it?” Kim’s immediate reaction was basically disbelief of it all saying, “ It was kind of like...I cannot believe this is happening here...where I am at...and not in some town in Kentucky somewhere. It’s right here.” Kim remarked that “ It was just total concern for the people. It went on for hours...until eight or nine at night...as the lists were being printed of the ones who got out...and if they weren’t out by than...than there was really no other conclusion to come to but...that they were still inside.”
Kim said that the only way she heard any information really was from the news about how things were and what was going on. “At one point,” Kim said, “ I tried to go down to the school but it was blocked off...it was just a mess.” She said that her phone was constantly ringing throughout the day and night trying to figure who had made it out and who did not. Kim mentioned that she didn’t think that the casualties and the number of injured people were so high. She recalled talking to one of her friends, Greg, whose ex-girlfriend had lost her arm. “ Everywhere you look there’s someone...everyone knew someone from Columbine.”
I asked her than how about this traumatic event had affected her. She began to tell me that it caused her to value friendship a lot more than she had prior to this tragedy. Kim said that “ You never know when stuff like this is going to happen.” Kim expressed that “Just the stand that Cassie took with her faith was a real inspiration to me to live out what I believe.” Kim said that she knew many of the struggles that Cassie had and how difficult life was at times for her but she still pressed on through it all. “ She pressed on all the way to the end ... she knew exactly what it was going to mean to say ‘Yes I believe in God’” Kim remarked that it made her realize that she (Cassie) wasn’t perfect that she had struggles but she persevered. Also, Kim said that this tragedy caused her to become more outgoing and to reach out to others. “It just made me want to reach out to them (people considered to be outcasts) in any way that I can... even if it’s just saying ‘Hey, how’s it going?’”
Explaining how she dealt with this, Kim expressed that she deals with emotion through music. “I was in a band at the time for my church and we went down to Columbine. There was a huge park, Clement Park, where they had a memorial where the ground was covered like a shrine with flowers, letters, cards... little things that reminded people. So I went down there, for two weeks straight with the band and we played. We had our own little corner. People would gather and listen to our songs cause it was like a comfort to them. They knew that this was our way of dealing with it by reaching out to people and saying ‘this was an awful thing but there is hope and life’” Helping others overcome the pain was a way that helped Kim to overcome the pain. Kim explained also that the community grew in unity more after this event. “ It was cool cause you could walk up to anyone and ask them how they felt about it. You could have a total conversation. I’ve met many people I’ve never seen and said ‘How are you feeling about this?’ cause everyone was just totally open. Columbine brought us together.”
During the interview, Kim portrayed a message of hope for all those hurting because of this tragedy and of others like Columbine. I personally know Kim has been greatly changed from this event. I believe that she is more outgoing, wanting to give and show God’s awesome love, and is more of a happy person because she knows that her true joy and hope lies in Jesus Christ.
I believe that this interview went a lot easier than I thought it would. I think interviewing a close personal friend of mine made the interview go smoothly and be in a very relaxed atmosphere. I think that our conversation during the interview and after the interview was equally informative. I learned a lot both prior to the interview and after. I studied up a lot on this event so it’s hard to say what I learned that I did not know before. This event impacted me tremendously even though I had no direct contact with any of the victims. I do have family that lives in that area. From Kim, this interview made me realize and come to see why Kim is so outgoing, so loving, so sweet and kind and such an awesome person. I did not realize how much this had affected her and that she did know Cassie so that was something knew for me to learn. Overall I truly rate this interview as being extremely positive. I learned a lot from it both personally and mentally (knowledge-wise). I had an extremely good time doing it and I think it worked out great for both Kim and I. I give all thanks to my friend, Kim O’Hara, whom I love dearly.
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Kimberly Ann O'Hara
Now + Present Kim
