By Emma Stelter '16

This happened to me twice. One day last January I walked out of the Hôtel Citadines on the left bank in Paris. I saw the news headline on the flat screen TV in the lobby. I read the words “attentat terroriste.” It didn’t register. I walked to the Metro and rode to the Tuileries stop, with every intention of going to the Musée d’Orsay, where our guide, Lucille, was giving a tour. When I checked my phone for the time, I saw an email from our program director, written in English, asking us all to check in with her as soon as possible. I texted my parents that I was OK, and returned to the hotel.

By Victoria Uren '17

We knew about them, then-not in detail, of course, but we had an idea. They flew around without pilots, dropped bombs wherever they pleased. Did Obama have anything to do withit? I guess so, but-“hope,” right? We knew what the military did was probably not ethical, but whose ethics could we judge by? It’s not like we were given any. The CNN of my childhood covered a Bush government. Those were the headlines that taught me how to read.

By Anonymous

I was born in what is widely considered the most powerful country in the world. I have brown skin, not white, and dark hair, not blonde, and I call my god Allah and bow to pray to Him five times a day, instead of going to church one day a week. 

By Katelyn Campbell '17

When I returned to campus this fall after a summer at home in West Virginia, I was surprised to be greeted by an all-too-familiar vista. A miniature version of a mountaintop removal site has taken the place of the once-hilly path between the Academic Quad and the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, marking the landscape with what can only be branded as an eyesore. At first, I joked morbidly about the resemblance between the two subjects with friends before moving on. Although my initial jokes have gone out of vogue from overuse, I still think about my friends and family back home whenever I walk past the scene.