American Teenagers are Desensitized and it’s Breaking Us

In March 2013, a young man stood up in my journalism class and politely stopped our instructor from lecturing to inform her, and all of us, that a bomb threat had been made to our campus and that we were all required to leave immediately to safer ground.

I pulled out my phone and sure enough the text message I had ignored said the same thing. I gathered my bags and clung to one of my friends as our professor told us to be safe. My friend and I left the building into a swarm of slow-walking students heading to the dorms. I called my roommate and she and I walked downtown to do some window-shopping.

We later heard that students who had parked in the garage spent more than 3 hours trying to get out. There was a student directing traffic because the police couldn’t get there in time. We all joked that if there really was a bomber, it would have been wise to plant it at the garage because everyone would rather wait on campus for it to blow before leaving their precious cars.

#WritersLife: Paid Internships and Why They are Awesome

#WritersLife. Let's talk writing in real life.

I recently made some changes and moved 600 miles from my alma mater back to my hometown. It was bittersweet, but very much necessary. Within two days of being back, I had an interview and a job offer. Look at me, being all productive! Seriously though, I'm going to talk about paid internships (which this job is) and give a few reasons why more student writers need to look into them.