Newtown. The Orlando nightclub. Las Vegas. Santa Fe High School. Stoneman Douglas High School. And now, Pittsburgh.

While reported mass shootings never sit well with me, the proximity of the recent attack in Pittsburgh that took the lives of 11 individuals at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill truly struck a different, deeper nerve.

Squirrel Hill is approximately an hour from Waynesburg. I currently live in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, just about 20 minutes from where this hate crime occurred. I grew up in Bridgeville, which is 25 minutes away from the area this happened in.

For me, the phrase, “too close to home” is a literal one.

I grew up with friends who are Jewish and have a Jewish aunt and uncle.

The victims of the shooting ranged from 54 years old to 97 years old. These people were mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers, sisters — you name it. These were people of the Pittsburgh community who were just exercising their right to practice their religion freely and in peace — something that has been fought for in this country for centuries.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, this was “the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.”

Rose Mallinger, the eldest victim, was one of five people whose lives were cut short in this attack that lived through the Holocaust. These people, roughly 73 years after the Holocaust ended, were taken from this earth by a monster with the same anti-Semitic thoughts that prompted the killing of six million Jews just decades ago.

It is beyond alarming that these types of things are still happening in our country. You never think it is going to affect you, or someone close to you, until it does.

These 11 victims, plus the other six who were injured, woke up like it was any other Saturday morning and had no idea what was to come. We never know what can happen, and it’s scary that you can’t even go to your place of worship without the fear of someone walking in and potentially attacking you because they oppose your views.

I was wary to go to church later the same night as the shooting. I started attending church regularly this past summer, and I’ve never had this pit-in-the-stomach feeling that me going to church on a Saturday night is no different than what those Jewish people did earlier that same morning.

It can happen anywhere.

We shouldn’t have to feel threatened in places that are supposed to be safe. Places meant for love and worship.

I am angry that this stuff keeps happening. I get angrier with each one I hear about, but this one is different. Now the violence has touched Pittsburgh, my home — our home.

This doesn’t just affect the Pittsburgh community, either; this affects the entire country, along with the global Jewish community.

We need to rally around each other. I don’t know about other people, but this shooting really lit a fire in me, because it feels more personal. People in my community, people in my family, people that I love and people all over the country are confused and terrified because of the recent events that transpired.

People need to show love and compassion to everyone around them. Political affiliation doesn’t matter, religious affiliation doesn’t matter, skin color doesn’t matter and gender doesn’t matter. We need to collectively, as a country, continue to grow and treat everyone else as who they really are: human beings. This has to stop. It begins with us.