Music legend Stevie Nicks penned a heartfelt tribute honoring the lives lost in the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that took place a year ago.
On May 24, 2022, a gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers and injured 17 others at Robb Elementary School. It was considered the third deadliest school shooting in the U.S. at the time.
Nicks took to Twitter to share an essay she wrote in remembrance of the victims titled “The Lost Futures Of Uvalde." She expressed she "will never be able to let this go."
The Fleetwood Mac frontrunner shared the hopes and dreams she had as a child, writing:
"My family moved to El Paso Texas when I was in the third grade. I started a new school and one of the classes they offered was ballet. After only a week I came home and told my mom, ‘I’m going to be a prima ballerina.’"
"She said, ‘I believe you.’"
"I said, ‘I know.’ And I danced away. That was the beginning. The first page of the greatest love story of my life, my love for dance and music."
"Another year, another page, and I hear my grandfather in the driveway. He showed up with a truck load of 45’s and we sat on the floor in my room listening to them all and singing along."
"He said, ‘You’re a natural harmony singer, Stephanie. That’s a very special thing you can do.’"
"I ran to my mom and said, ‘I’m going to be a country singer and Granddad thinks I can do it.’"
"And my mother said, ‘What about ballet?’"
"I told her, ‘I’ll bring it with me. I’ll dance on stage.’"
"She said, ‘I believe you.’ And I smiled and danced away."
Her passion for music took root and she continued talking about how dreams started to evolve, all with support and love from her family:
"The 5th grade brought car radios playing The Shirelles, Martha and the Vandellas, The Crystals, The Chantelles, and the Shangri-Las. Harmonies sung at the top of my lungs in the backseat of my parents’ car."
"My dreams never changed; they were growing faster than I was. I couldn’t contain it. I sang to make room for the beat of my own heart. I danced to keep up with the spinning of my mind."
"I wore my first top hat on stage in a sixth-grade talent show with a black skirt and vest and black capezio tap shoes. (Sound familiar) With a brush and ball change, I tap danced to Buddy Holly’s ‘Everyday.’"
"Then my family moved to California and by the time I was fifteen that love for music was unbreakable. My parents bought me a Goya guitar and after taking one month of guitar lessons and learning five chords I finally wrote my first song."
"I played it for mom and dad and told them I was gonna be a singer-songwriter. They said, ‘We believe you, we always did, but first you need to go to college.’ And I did, for almost 5 years."
"I met a boy and eventually we started making music together. One day we got a call from a band and went to a dinner that changed our lives."
Upon reflection, she touched on the things that have and haven't changed since she was a child with unbreakable ambition.
"When I look back, it all happened so fast. I was just a ten-year-old in El Paso, Texas deciding what to do with the rest of my life. I knew my destiny so many pages ago."
"I still write on that guitar. I still feel the ballet in every move. I got to grow up and join Fleetwood Mac. I got to write music for the world for 50 years, that I hope has touched people’s hearts.
"I got to grow up and become Stevie Nicks."
A year after the tragic school shooting, Nicks wondered about the children who were robbed of their futures.
"As we ponder the one-wear anniversary of Uvalde, and the myriad of shootings that have happened since that fateful day, I can’t help but ask myself, what if I had been shot and killed by a man with a gun while in my ballet class in the third grade?"
"And I can’t help but think of all those little lost futures…"
She concluded her essay with:
"And so, in closing, my arms go around each one of those little hearts like a ring of angels that will always be missing."
"I will never be able to let this go…"
"If anything, I will do all I can to keep this story alive.”
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit