I thought I would see Charlie Kirk again.
On April 10, 2025, I went to my first political event. Having closely followed politics globally and nationally for nearly five years, I was more than a little excited to attend a Turning Point USA gathering where Charlie Kirk was set to speak. I was bouncing on my toes as my father, brother, and I approached the large crowd around the tent.
I remember debating heavily with myself whether I should go ask Charlie Kirk a question, because I never disagreed with him on anything. In the end, I decided I was content to listen to Charlie speak truth. But later, I lamented to my father that I had not asked a question that day. I also distinctly remember telling my dad that it was okay, that there would be other Turning Point events where I might meet Charlie Kirk. Maybe I would even work at Turning Point and meet him then.
Little did I know that we were exactly five months out from an assassination that would be a turning point in this nation and in the West at large.
On September 10, 2025, I was in shock. How could this man that I had seen only five months earlier, so full of life and energy, be gone? How could this voice that I had grown so familiar with Instagram videos and podcast episodes be forever silenced?
A part of me was in denial. There were two assassination attempts on President Trump and he had survived largely unscathed, so I told myself that Charlie certainly would as well.
His death didn’t feel real.
Being born in a post-9/11 world, I had never been through an event that was such a direct attack on this country. I had never been through an event where the exact place I was and what I was doing when it happened would be forever seared into my mind.
It wasn’t until the next day, September 11, 2025 -- twenty-four years after the terrorist attacks in New York City and the Pentagon -- that I truly began to realize the gravity of the current situation. As the shock wore off, I was left grieving the loss of a man who had brought so many members of my generation to the Republican Party, but more importantly, to Christ.
I had never cried so much over someone I had never met. It felt as though the very ideals that America had been built on had been murdered alongside Charlie.
In the morning hours of September 12, 2025, when the dew was still fresh on the ground, the Holy Spirit compelled me to do my daily devotions by my college campus’s flagpole. So, I grabbed my Bible and my prayer journal to sit on the cold cobblestones under the flags that had been lowered at half-mast in honor of Charlie Kirk. As other students walked by, I pored over the Scriptures, praying that God would repurpose this evil for His good, bringing about a revival in this country and in this world.
I read scriptures of hope, scriptures of comfort, scriptures that would give me strength in the coming days. But the one that stood out to me the most was 1 Thessalonians 2:13-14, where Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica about believers who have died:
“Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people that have died so that you won’t mourn like the others who don’t have any hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus.”
That is the greatest comfort: Charlie is now with his Savior that he so dearly loved, and Christians have hope that Christ will one day return. But here on Earth, there is also hope.
For the longest time, my generation was scared to speak. Scared of the repercussions that it would lead to. We were told not to speak or not to offend; that we had to constantly walk on eggshells.
The repercussions have never been greater, but my generation is bolder than ever to speak out for truth, and that is because of Charlie Kirk. He gave us back our voices. We are no longer scared to speak, no longer scared to offend; we put on our shoes and crushed the very eggshells we tiptoed around.
On September 10, I felt as though I lost a dear friend. And I know many feel the same. That is because Charlie Kirk was a friend to all, always willing to have a debate, hear the other side out, lead them to truth.
Just like Charlie, my father has always told me that it is up to my generation to restore America to its founding principles such as the freedom of speech and faith in God. And we are doing just that! Notice the difference between 2020’s Summer of Violence following the death of George Floyd: the Left responded with looting, rioting and terrorism. But now in 2025, in response to the murder of Charlie Kirk, we do not raise our fists; we raise our voices in prayer. We do not gather to riot; we gather to comfort one another. We do not make Molotov cocktails, we open our Bibles, looking to Christ to lead us. I think that it is safe to say Charlie Kirk would be proud of how we have responded to his death.
We cannot let the death of Charlie Kirk also be the death of everything that he fought for. We must pick up the baton, bloody though it may be, and finish running his race, finish fighting his fight, and carry his battle to victory.
So now, I call upon the fellow members of my generation: Let us be the change. Let us be the hope. Let us fulfill Charlie’s hope in us.
Nella Smith is a student at a Christian college based in Indiana.
Image: Gage Skidmore