Audio Diary: Leonor Muñoz Reflects On Going To College When You Come From Parkland

In May, we brought youthe audio diary of Leonor Muñoz, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the class of 2018. Leonor carried a recorder and documented life in the aftermath of the shooting—her activism, her trauma, her family.

Leonor's in college now. The recorder went with her. And she has this update on how she's doing—a year later.

  LISTEN: What it means to go to college when you come from Parkland.

In her raw tapes, Leonor reflected on why she agreed to make another audio journal. Here's Leonor in her own words: 

"Last year around March, when the March for Our Lives was going on, I was asked to do a radio diary. And it was an incredible experience—both the march and the making and editing of the radio diary.

It was an important experience.

I struggle to put any adjectives, positive or negative, on it because I know that it came from the worst thing that ever happened to me.

I was recently asked to do a follow-up, and I was curious to see what would what I would come up with. So I said yes.

More and more I'm realizing over the course of this past year, especially coming close to the anniversary, there is nothing good that can cancel out the bad that happened that day. No matter what I do, it's never going to change the fact that 17 people from my school died horribly and violently almost a year ago.

But I think it's also important that we realize—that Irealize—that even though the good cannot cancel out the bad, the same goes for the opposite. Bad cannot cancel out the good. And as hard as it is to recognize that, it's important—it's necessary—because otherwise it's too easy to fall into the idea that life is no longer worth living.

And that's not true."

Here's Leonor on dealing with people's reactions when they find out she's from Parkland: 

https://youtu.be/_JLuurHUOAI

You can listen to the Leonor's first audio diary here:

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