As many (all) of you heard, there was an online threat via an anonymous source threatening to wreak havoc on a "university near Philadelphia" at 2 p.m. EST yesterday. As many (all) of you also know, this threat thankfully never came to fruition. To whoever wrote that threat, I have two words for you: thank you.

Thank you for making me fear my everyday routine. Each morning I wake up at 8 a.m. to brush my teeth, dress, and eat something before going to my 9 a.m. class. Because of you, I was afraid to do that. Thank you for instilling a notion that going to school--an institution I pay an arm and a leg to attend--was something I should be wary of. Thank you for the hard decision I had to make this morning: go to school and risk being attacked or stay home and cower to debate the “what if."

Thank you for enabling my relatives--my mom, my dad, my grandfather, my second cousin, my great aunt--to text, call, email and FaceTime me wondering if I'm OK. You have successfully caused my family to regret and reconsider their allowing me to attend college in a big city where there are "bad" people. You have instilled fear in my parents for their only child's life, the child they have given up everything for, the child they have sacrificed their youth, their savings, their friends and their hobbies for. Thank you for the opportunity to hear fear in my father's voice for the first time.

Thank you for providing me the chance to become one in solidarity with the other 140,000 terrified college students in the Philadelphia area. Because of you, my fellow students and I were not only afraid of you, but were afraid of one another. Anyone could have been our attacker. Thank you for pushing me to look over my shoulder every second, to clutch my pepper spray in my pocket, and walk from building to building earphone-less, cringing at every rustle in the trees and every sound from the busy street.

Lastly, thank you for reminding me that there are other people like you out there--people who do not understand the value of a life and how fortunate we are to have one. Thank you for reinforcing that anyone I encounter on a daily basis can hurt me, and I may not be fortunate enough to know that it is coming. Thank you for reminding me to be appreciative that on a normal day I feel safe on my campus, while not every student has that luxury.

It is a disgrace that the world we live in has become a place where people are harmed doing everyday things in everyday places such as going to school, seeing a movie, running a marathon, depositing money at a bank…but we CANNOT live in fear. Our fear is what these individuals thrive on. Do not give them what they want.

Thank you to the Philadelphia Police Department, The Departments of Public Safety at all of the Philadelphia area universities, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for making the students of Philadelphia’s safety their top priority today. But mostly, thank you for not letting the Beta Uprising win.