Wednesday, August 23rd, was supposed to be a normal day. I am up at Brandeis University already, training for Orientation. As the entire group sits in a discussion about mental health, one of our staff members walks in and says this: "As some of you may have seen on your phones, there were bomb threats received this morning. We need to evacuate all of you to the soccer field."
WHAT?
That was all I could think as I hurried out the door. This is Brandeis, a place I have felt safe for an entire year now. This is Brandeis, a place that accepts everyone, no matter what race, gender, sex, ethnicity, or religion they may be. And yet, that is exactly why it happened. The bomb threat occurred because of what my university, my second home, stands for.
The people who sent these threats are in the same group that marched with tiki torches throughout Charlottesville. They want to scare the people doing good. They want to make us feel that we cannot live any day without fear that it could be our last. They want us to stop putting up the good fight.
Well, they cannot break us down that easily.
Wednesday showed me what a family Brandeis is. The staff was phenomenal. They not only provided us meals for the seven hours we were in safe places, but they also made sure we were mentally and physically okay. Even just the simple asking of, "Is everything good here?" made me feel a lot more secure. Sure, I was having a panic attack inside at the thought that someone could come at any minute and kill us. However, it was the staff who helped ensure to me that I was okay.
And it was not just the staff. The students who are here already, especially the Orientation Leaders and Community Advisors, made me relax. They kept me entertained: I can tell you my legs were sore from the amount of Jazzercise and Ninga I played. Not only that, but they kept me talking and interacting with others. I know that, if I was sitting by myself, I would not have been able to handle those entire seven hours.
Besides the family aspect of the event, it also proved how strong Brandeis is. We continued to work that night on specifics of the first day of Orientation, while our staff completely rewrote our agenda to ensure that we would still have time for the important parts of our training. There was also the staff that went and checked every single room inside and out to make sure that the threat was simply just a threat. Now, I do not know the protocol of every university, but I am glad that this is the protocol at Brandeis. Finally, our President sent out a message on social media. He explained that we would still continue Orientation as usual, providing a list of resources on campus to help process what had happened.
While this still scares me, I understand that what happened may become normal due to the recent events in our country. But what I am confident of is that our community will come together, become stronger, and show the other side that we will NOT stop fighting.
