You may have heard about the horrible tragedy that occurred last week at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia that changed the lives of students and prompted the college to offer consolations and services to any who were disturbed by this event.

Are we thinking of the same occurrence that made newspapers around the country? The awful vandalism that occurred on university grounds that one fateful day that caused such an uproar?

The dreaded words "Vote Trump 2016" written in chalk, scribbled around various places on campus.

If you are as hurt and upset about this form of political expression as I am, then you probably understand what the students attending this college went through, seeing such a message. Many students protested, saying they felt frustrated and even fearful due to the threatening nature of such words.

Threatened. By those three simple words of public support being vocalized for one of the leading candidates in this year's presidential race.

Students were outraged by the message and felt attacked by the words, written in chalk that could be easily erased. The college responded with messages to the students from the College Council and Student Government Association, offering office hours for students who had "encountered a lack of safety and support" in order to discuss the support and inclusiveness that the students felt they were lacking.

I contemplated taking this article down a couple of different avenues, and I thought about each of them carefully. I could write about how an individual has the freedom of speech and freedom of expression here in America to express favor towards whatever candidate he would like for president, unpopular or not, and this cannot be taken away. It is not up to anyone to preemptively censor their personal opinions or inclinations just to spare the feelings of those whose thoughts may not line up with his own.

I could write about my annoyance with the college's student government offering money, presumably taken from an already-tight budget that would have come from a portion of students' tuitions, to fund the efforts of any student organization on campus that would like to sponsor an event in response to this incident. I am sure there are scholarships for the financially needy or on-campus general safety repairs for which such an excess of money could have been used instead.

But, in the end, I know I want to talk about the American spirit, and how people have gotten so sensitive that our eyes cannot even see certain words anymore without feeling personally victimized, offended, or scandalized.

When did we get like this? So sensitive to the words of others that we cannot even accept that other people's opinions may, sometimes, not line up with our own. It is like we can no longer have any sort of difference; like we always must maintain a oneness of mind, in order to avoid any conflict.

The second someone's preferences, (religious, political, environmental), differ from our own, we automatically see this vocalization as a personal attack. We think that this dissension automatically puts a target on our backs, and now we are justified in feeling offended or fearful.

And maybe this way of thinking is society's fault. Children are indoctrinated since they are small to idolize certain people with certain specific characteristics, and those who differ from these norms are often made to feel like outsiders or anomalies. Growing up feeling like something is wrong with them, the individual may psychologically begin to steal him or herself against any criticism or difference of opinion, immediately, as a defense mechanism. So, in adulthood, perhaps people react so strongly to criticism because that is how they have been taught, intuitively.

But is this the best way to promote conflict resolution? A positive social culture? An attention to everyone's feelings, disjointed and unbiased from one's own?

Once people stop feeling like every opinion that is different from their own is a personal attack or a statement intentionally designed to cause offense or deprecate, they can better understand fellow human beings and develop better relationships.

It starts with genuinely caring about the opinions of others and not taking everything that occurs in life so seriously. If someone says something with which you disagree, instead of immediately rejecting it, laughing, or thinking that they must be insulting you in some way simply because you are different, start by just accepting that not everyone is going to agree with you all of the time and realize that's okay.

Once you get this through your head, life is a lot easier. Friendships become easier to maintain because you don't have unrealistic expectations towards what you want he or she to say to you. Work relationships become easier because people stop resisting change and innovation and start seeing it in a more promising light.

The same goes with life. If you can detatch yourself from the situation and just brush the simple words off, if you can understand that your thoughts are unique to you and no one else, if you can believe that you will be a better person if you hear differing opinions calmly and rationally, then I guarantee you will be happier in your own life because of it.

And sleep better at night, no longer haunted by the thought that someone like a Trump supporter could possibly exist.

We don't need emergency therapy services, safe spaces, or sympathy.

We need to adopt a new mindset.