2B
Wednesday, January 13, 2016 // The Statement
FLINT WATER CRISIS
ON THE
RECORD
“This is not my legacy. This is part of my legacy because
I’m responsible for the entire state and our operations.
But there are many other good things going on and we’re
working hard to recover.”
— Michigan Gov. RICK SNYDER (R) on the impact of the Flint
Water Crisis on his legacy as governor
***
“If you were to put something in a population to keep
them down for generation and generations to come, it
would be lead ... It drops your IQ, it affects your behavior,
it’s been linked to criminality, it has multigenerational
impacts. There is no safe level of lead in a child.”
— Flint pediatrician DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA on the
neurological impacts of elevated lead levels in Flint’s water on the
city’s population
Zooming In: Not faring well
F
or as long as I can remember,
I’ve been afraid of endings. I
don’t mean to say the past 19
years have been plagued with a looming
fear of death or apocalyptic destruction.
I’m talking about an inner reluctance
to move on from, let go of and say good-
bye to the people, places and events that
have shaped my life.
Common emotional challenges for me
include — but are by no means limited to
— birthdays, new years and major mile-
stones.
I can still remember tearing up on my
13th birthday. When my parents asked
me what was wrong, I told them I was
sad I would no longer be a kid. “Yeah,
it’s all downhill from here,” my Dad
said, trying to make me laugh the way he
always does.
But that wasn’t quite it. I wasn’t afraid
of facing the future, becoming an adult
or accepting new responsibilities. Nor
was I in mourning of the frizzy, awk-
ward rollercoaster that was my pre-
teenage existence.
I just wasn’t ready to let go of 12-years-
old. I guess most would classify my con-
dition as a fear of change. But to me it
seems much more complex.
I felt a similar sadness while taking
one last look at my classmates before
leaving my senior celebration on the
night of graduation. I should clarify that
my high school career was nothing more
than typical. To give you the Reader’s
Digest version of those four years: I sur-
vived.
By the time I’d committed to Michi-
gan, I was very ready for new people,
buildings and experiences. Yet no mat-
ter how excited I was to move on, I could
not escape the inevitable churning in my
stomach that came during graduation.
It’s hard to explain what I was feeling
because I knew I would stay close to the
people I truly cared long after gradu-
ation. But what about everyone — and
everything — else?
There wasn’t a chance I would miss
the rigid bell schedule, mandatory math
classes and stereotypically segregated
cliques I’d endured in high school. Yet,
I still couldn’t help but feel sad that I
would never be in the same place with
the same people doing the same things
again. That’s what bothers me the most
about endings.
There remains something very sad to
me about coming to the realization that,
in that moment, I was taking my last
look at the group of people who — for
better or worse — collectively shaped
my high school experience and there-
fore the person I am today.
It’s obviously much easier to pin-
point the reason behind my sadness as
I watched my brother pack the car in
preparation for his freshman year of
college. I would miss him completely,
and living at home never felt quite right
after he left.
But I’ve come to realize that it’s not
impossible to miss things I never nec-
essarily valued. I guess all emotions
attached to different people and places
— whether good or bad — are what make
them real and therefore hard to let go of.
B Y L A R A M O E L H M A N
COVER BY SHANE ACHENBACH
“On New Year’s Resolutions: Don’t worry, there’s
always next year. In the meantime, have a New Year’s
Reflection instead.” -Akhil Kantipuly, LSA Senior
– LSA senior AKHIL KANTIPULY
EMILIE FARRUGIA/DAILY
THOUGHT BUBBLE
RESOLUTIONS