For those of you who don’t know, safe spaces are designated places on college campuses where people can go if they have ideas that differ from those of the community around them. These places have all kinds of soothing luxuries, including a very sympathetic staff. These safe zones provide a place where people can spend time recovering from the “trauma” they experience from being a victim of opinions that conflict with theirs.

If you ask me, needing a safe space is absurd. We live in a world where people are offended too easily, and it has gotten out of hand. The people who take advantage of these safe places are people who believe they are being attacked just because someone does not agree with them. Facing people who have opinions outside of your own is a fact of life that must be faced at one time or another.

As an American and an individual, you are entitled to expressing yourself however you please without having something such as a safe space infringing on your rights. This is why we have that thing called the First Amendment. The First Amendment states that we have the freedom of speech. This means that we are all entitled to exercising our own beliefs and opinions, regardless of how they may differ from one person to the next. These safe spaces violate our right to that amendment by declaring certain topics as off-limits, taking away our ability to speak freely without having to worry about offending someone just because we think differently than they do.

To the people who use these safe zones, what do you plan to do when you no longer have the luxury of a room staffed with people to protect you in such an overindulgent way? Do you plan on locking yourself in your home away from the world, or are you going to come to the realization that the world was not created to appease and coddle you? The world is not a conflict-free environment, and you are certainly not going to learn how to cope with the conflicts of life from your safe space.

Quite frankly, these safe spaces are offensive to the people who do not need them to feel safe. You hide in this safe place for the fear of being labeled by others, but you sure do have a lot of labels to place on the people you are hiding from. Homophobe, racist, sexist, misogynist, etc., the list goes on and on. Your hypersensitivity does not mean that someone is racist because their view of police brutality is different than yours. It does not mean that someone is a homophobe just because they do not believe in gay marriage. In these kinds of instances, you say that the people of the world are close-minded, which brings me to ask, what is so open about your safe place where you hide because you are unable to accept the fact that an individual sees things differently than you?

Basically, what I’m saying is that it is time for people to stop expecting the world to prioritize their sensitivity. In life, your ideas and beliefs are going to be challenged, but that doesn’t mean you are under attack or unsafe. People grow by facing challenges and learning to handle situations that may be unsettling and outside of their comfort zone. If you expect the world to be your giant safe space, I suggest that you never leave the comfort of your home; for your home is the only place where you are shielded from reality.