My youngest daughter, and the fourth of my five children, died in the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Before that day, I had never been on an airplane. Since then, I have crossed the USA and Texas multiple times to advocate for stricter gun laws on the federal and state levels.

Two weeks after I lost my Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, whom most knew as Lexi, and three days before her funeral, I testified before a U.S. Congressional committee about the effects of gun violence. I don’t recall making a conscious decision to actively join the gun violence prevention movement, but, looking back, I’ve always been a member. As we’ve seen in Uvalde, gun violence is an epidemic.

Since losing Lexi, I have marched, rallied, and met with politicians. I have flown to Washington, D.C., Florida, California, Chicago, and Massachusetts. In the spring of 2023, my husband Felix and I, along with other families affected by mass shootings, spent months advocating at the Texas Capitol for House Bill 2744, which would have raised the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic guns from 18 to 21. Had this bill been law in 2022, the gunman would not have been able to legally purchase the AR-15-style weapon he used to murder my daughter. Ultimately, the bill died without a vote from the full House.

Before the events of May 24, 2022, destroyed my life, I left a flourishing career as a journalist. In 2019, I resigned as assistant editor of the Uvalde Leader-News to pursue higher education. I wanted to emphasize to my children – the first of whom I gave birth to when I was 15 – the importance of education, of setting and meeting goals, of self-improvement. I started working at the newspaper in 2010, when I was 21, and just over 10 months later I gave birth to Lexi. My children watched me grow as a journalist, and I accumulated multiple news and feature writing awards from regional and state press associations. I continued to excel when I pursued college courses as a non-traditional student, despite the pandemic, which saw me balancing my own studies while trying to supplement my children's education at-home. They were in second through ninth grades that school year.

Today, I am back at the Uvalde Leader-News, where I work in advertising. I ran an unsuccessful campaign for Uvalde mayor in 2023, and I hope law school is in my future. I continue to travel for advocacy, with the goal of preserving Lexi's legacy. She did not die in vain.

https://linktr.ee/nicrubio18