Sometimes it’s the awful tragedies in life that remind us to pray. To pray for the world. To pray for the protection of daughters, sisters, mothers and wives. To pray for safety when walking home even if we shouldn’t have to.
On Sunday Apr. 3, 2016, on the University of Texas campus, Haruka Weiser was walking to her dorm from dance practice when she was assaulted and killed. I cannot imagine the pure horror Haruka’s family and friends must be going through. That night is the night they lost a daughter, a sister and a friend. Haruka is mentioned to have had dreams of continuing to dance, travel and be the lighthearted spirit that friends and family remember her to be. Rest in peace Haruka Weiser, I pray for your family every day.
How sick is a world in which we cannot walk home without the fear of being assaulted? This is the time where you realize you live in a world that doesn’t spare 18 year olds and living until they're 95 is often unheard of. I suppose this is a time when you realize you simply cannot walk alone on a Sunday night at 9 p.m. A tragic time like this is the one where we are reminded to thank God for the loved ones in our lives. You never truly know when they’ll be taken away from you.
A time like this makes you call your mom and tell her how much you love her, it makes you hug your best friend a little tighter than normal, and it makes you remember people’s faces before you say “see you tomorrow.” I pray for a world that has parted with violence and the fear of walking home alone. I pray for a world in which women don’t have to carry pocket knives in their wallets or pepper spray in their purses. I pray for a world that somebody would never find it humanly possible to take away somebody else’s life.
But as for now, this is a call for women to travel together on campuses... but not only that. A call to take every single day you are given to live life fully and with happiness. To take every single day and make sure that it was a day well spent. To take every single day as it comes with energy and passion. Haruka was passionate for dance and was known for being joyous and full of love. She had dreams, hopes and ambitions. Dreams that were cut too short but such a reminder to the rest of us that life is never guaranteed.
Rest in peace, Haruka Weiser, a soul as beautiful on the inside as the outside.
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love" - Marcus Aurelius