It’s been 10 and a half years since Heidi Miller was hiding under a desk trying to cover her head and spinal cord when a shooter had entered her classroom. In 2007, Miller was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre after being shot in her left leg three times. After graduating from HHS in 2006 and moving onto the next chapter of her life, Miller’s freshman year of college was something she’ll never forget. To expand her surroundings after high school, Miller had applied to places such as University of Virginia and University of Mary Washington, but Virginia Tech made its way to the top of her list.

“I wanted to get out of Harrisonburg for a little while because around fifteen years ago, it wasn’t as cool as it is now,” Miller said.

Miller majored in international studies where she made new friends and became involved with the community around her.

“Some years I would help in a mentor program for elementary kids, sometimes I would get really involved with the student government, but I didn’t have one thing that I constantly did in college,” Miller said.

Apr. 16, 2007, Virginia Tech was on the news for a school shooting. Thirty-two people were killed that day and 17 were wounded. Miller was part of the 17.

“We were in class and we heard sort of weird sounds… Our professor looked out in the hall and she turned around and she tried to block the door and I hid under a desk. The shooter came into our room [twice] and then the second time, that’s where he shot himself,” Miller said. Her recovery consisted of spending a week in the hospital and not being able to put weight on her left leg. Miller attended physical therapy in Harrisonburg and was soon back on her feet to finish the last three years of college.

Right after finishing up at Tech, Miller headed straight to Pennsylvania where she taught special ed students. Later on, teaching was something she realized she wasn’t strongly interested in, so she was then off to Maryland to attend graduate school where she did social work. After living there for a while, Miller wanted a fresh start, so she moved out to Denver, Colorado with her best friend, where she met her husband. While there, Miller wanted to be closer to home and attend school again. The next step Miller took was moving out to Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband, where she lives now.

“I’m back in grad school, and I will finish this time. I’m in Knoxville, Tennessee at the University of Tennessee for speech pathology… I finally feel like I picked the career that I like doing all the time. [I’m] enjoying the classes and trying to get good grades,” Miller said.

Because she’s back in school again, Miller did have to drop having a job in order to get through graduate school and get a Master in her Speech Pathology Program.

“I’m basically a college student again. In a day I’ll typically have two to three classes and then one to three clients, depending on the day… Some of my clients have had a stroke and need to learn how to talk again, some of my clients are kids and didn’t start talking until late. It’s really rewarding, I really like it.”

With this being her third time attending graduate school, Miller made an important decision in deciding whether this was the career for her or not.

“I had to make a very conscious choice to go back to school again and give up my job and give up my healthcare and my salary… I knew I had to be committed,” Miller said.

From moving around to different states to trying out new careers, Miller has found her life to be an example of why she should be thankful with the choices she has had after her freshman college experience.

“I think after everything happened at Virginia Tech, I just stopped worrying so much about what everyone else thought about what I was doing. It showed me what was really important in life and that getting a chance to be with people that you care about and following your dreams,” Miller said. “There are days that are hard, like, ‘Why am I back in school or why did I make this choice?’ but at least I get to make this choice and I get to make the best of it.”