I’ve been living in New York City for the past three summers, and if I’ve learned one thing it’s that people come in all shapes and sizes.
It’s almost been two weeks since the Orlando shooting, and I still can’t wrap my head around the amount of hatred that exists in this country.
Even though a single human being committed that act of terror, his vehement actions have reverberated through this country on our social feeds, at our dinner tables and in our workplaces.
I grew up in a small town where there was zero diversity and I was confined in a bubble for the first eighteen years of my life.
Once I started going to IU, I began to see a greater variety of life. Even so, whether sitting on the bus or walking to class, the students on our campus still have one common bond: to learn.
But when we step away from the institutions that define us, we’re all just humans. And all it takes is one bad apple to disrupt our lives and tear down our convictions.
As I sit on the subway in New York, looking at unfamiliar faces and different lifestyles, I automatically jump to defense mode.
Deep down, these people I don’t know scare me. And there’s no reason, no specific thing that I can pinpoint, that makes me think this way.
After recent events, my mind has begun to spin reality into some sickening horror story. I am constantly wondering what’s going to happen next — who has the gun and who are they going to point it at?
I, amongst many other fearful Americans, am letting fear win. The people I stand next to on the train may be thinking the very same thing.
The only thing that unites us is the fact that we don’t know what’s going to happen next.
We fear the unknown more than we fear our impending death, possibly because we’ve closely correlated the two together.
Orlando, Charleston and Newtown are intense reminders that although we are united by the unknown, there are a small portion of individuals who want nothing more than to make our fears a reality.
In a way, this column is for anyone else that finds himself or herself thinking these things, unconsciously questioning harmless people.
I need to stop fearing the unknown.
Although terrible things might or might not happen, amazing things will happen. And when they do, the best and only thing we can do is to be there for each other in times of both celebration and solidarity.
