#route 91

Michelle Vo

January 10, 1985 - October 1, 2017

Michelle is a Vietnamese American, lived in California’s Eagle Rock neighborhood and worked as an agent and financial services. She held a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of California, Davis, and received several awards during her career at New York Life. She graduated in 2003 from San Jose’s Independence High School. She loved to travel and during her life she visited many countries, but Michelle especially fell in love with Spain. She was very patriotic and even considered joining the military. Her middle name, 'Mỹ,' means 'America' in Vietnamese." She was a fun, charismatic middle child with two older sisters and one younger brother, was rock climbing and loved to cheer for the Golden State Warriors and was a pretty good golfer

Michelle loved all kinds of music, including country music. Therefore, on October 1, 2017, she decided to attend the country music festival, where unfortunately she was killed along with 57 other innocent people.

“she spread joy and laughter everywhere she went. She gave everything 150% including her career and was very successful at it. She loved people. She loved sports and will try anything. She was kind and charismatic. She was full of life.”

Michelle was described by her friends and family as an ambitious, hard worker known for her charisma and fierce independence

As many of you know, I recently moved to Las Vegas permanently. However, I’d been familiar with the city since I was a baby, because my family lives in Vegas. I’d also decided a couple of years ago to move, it was a matter of when not if. My best friend Lauren was a familiar face and her place was where I crashed anytime I was in town alone. So, Vegas has been my home for longer than I’ve lived here.

Rewind to the events of a year ago. Lauren and her fiance Jacob had been talking about going to the Route 91 weekend for a while, probably about a month. They had tickets, and were going to be there. I don’t remember too much about the day leading up to it, as I was in the hospital ER for some stupid injury. I remember being in the bed in the hospital, and all of the sudden all of the channels changed to breaking news and were talking about a shooting in Vegas. I thought “okay, big city, that happens” until more information came out.

The shooting was at the Route 91 festival.

Cue immediate panic and me sending my friend Lauren a text message in all caps asking if she was okay.

It took a little under 3 minutes for her to respond that she and Jacob were fine and at home. It was the longest 3 minutes of my life.

But here’s the thing: as much as that small corner of my universe was affected, it’s nothing, nothing compared to the trauma so many others experienced that night and continue to experience a year later. 

But let’s look at something here: how quickly everyone got back to a relative level of normal. I say relative because everyone was someone different before the shooting than they were after. The new normal is different than the old normal.

So what’s the major thing that served two purposes: to distract those in need of distraction and to give residents something to rally around in a tangible manner? 

(I’m going to pause here and state that I say tangible because it is something that everyone could participate in and have solid results from, unlike the way everyone rallied around the investigation into the shooter’s motives, which to this day aren’t clear)

The Las Vegas Golden Knights.

In pre-season games, the Golden Knights were pretty much an Average Joe hockey team. They were 3-3-1 with a shitty home record. And I feel bad for the team because they came off a loss (to the Sharks) only to hear about this tragedy that unfolded while they were away from their family and friends. How many of those players heard the news and couldn’t get a hold of loved ones? How many of them had the same moment so many of us did where we waited to hear from them?

After the tragedy, the Knights became something to rally around. Here’s a new team, bringing new life to a tired city, looking around at the tragedy around them and deciding that they’re going to be the representation of the glory of Vegas.

(I’d say they were hometown heroes, but the credit for that title goes towards all the First Responders and volunteers in the immediate aftermath and months to follow)

And the entire way the team worked shifted. They ironed out the kinks and went on to win over 84% of their home games, leading Vegas into a Stanley Cup frenzy that gave everyone something to cheer for. The Knights became the force that brought Vegas back from its knees and said “We won’t be dragged down. Not today.” 

And Vegas responded with “We can do this. We’re Las Vegas. Together, we are Strong.”

tomorrow (October 1, 2018) will mark one year since the Las Vegas Route 91 shooting (October 1, 2017). I know a majority of you do not give a damn about Country music - I don’t really either (though I still have that soft spot) - but tomorrow will be that one year anniversary. Aka the anniversary where I could’ve lost both my parents. 

my parents are huge Country fans, and went to the festival last year for a weekend getaway and birthday celebrations. it was supposed to be a genuine good time, like when we go to Warped Tour or Coachella. it was just another music festival.. but it wasn’t. I’m sure you all know a man started firing from the Mandalay Bay Hotel, killing 58 people. One of them being someone I graduated high school with. 

I cannot imagine living life without both or even one of my parents, and that night when I got that call, I had never heard my mom so scared for her life. my mom, the woman who never shows fear, the woman who is just as brave as dad, the woman you look up to and is your hero. I had never in my life heard her so scared. I got heard the news before the news heard it. My mom had just gotten inside of the Tropicana Hotel, still terrified for her life because no one knew where the shooter was. I just remember her first words to me being “we’re okay! we’re okay!” in the most not-okay voice you can think of. I couldn’t believe it. I was numb and emotionless. I couldn’t even cry. It was too surreal, and I was in denial for a while.