COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) — This Sunday marks one year since the mass shooting at Club Q. Five people were killed and dozens more injured.

Nov. 19, 2022, was a day that forever changed the lives of so many, especially victim Wyatt Kent. FOX31 sat down one-on-one with the victim, who had close ties to every person lost in this tragedy.

In the wake, the days and months pass in no normal way when you’re grieving.

“It feels like it’s been two months, and it feels like it’s been five years all at once,” Kent said.

1 year since the Club Q tragedy

For Kent, the anniversary of the Club Q shooting marks his birthday — the night he almost lost his life in the club and the night he lost five people who touched his life in different ways. From Kelly, who he says blocked him by gunfire, to the love of his life Daniel, these victims continue to touch his life daily.

“Every single day,” Kent said. “Daniel comes through that window over there in a ray of sunshine and hits me across the face. You know, I see him in clouds. Every time some bad situation that starts to turn funny on us happens, it’s absolutely Derek throwing a curveball in our day. You know, I see Raymond’s silly faces all the time reflected in other people, especially his younger brother. So I think about those lives a lot.”

Victims of the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs (Photos courtesy of the victim’s families)

They have motivated him to spend the last year not sulking, but taking action. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to work a lot with protest organizations in Denver, a lot of affirming organizations that do gender care, that do reproductive rights,” Kent said. “Being in those spaces, and being held and being uplifted and seen as an equal in those spaces to help the community, further has warmed me in so many, so many ways.”

Drag, what Kent was doing at Club Q the night of the shooting, continues to be his full-time career. In his other free moments, he dives into art and memorializing the man he loved so much.

“I’ve collected just about every single bouquet of flowers or individual flower and made it into a bouquet that I’ve received since losing Daniel. And I don’t know if you remember the letter that he wrote. That’s been a very key line for me, where he said, ‘You can never have too many flowers.'”

Flowers, beautiful moments, not hate — what Kent wants everyone to embrace as this anniversary arrives.

“There is so much power in resiliency,” Kent said. “And when things are so hard and terrible around you, there’s an equal amount of beautiful and fantastic things around us.”