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The Daily Pennsylvanian

9/11 10th Anniversary Issue


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By Sophia DuRose · Aug. 11, 2018

Fumbling through a summer fling, where I am the first to admit that I had no idea what I was doing, proved to me that relying on someone else to explain my actions led me no closer to self-realization than my (unsuccessful) attempts at Penn.

In some of the places I visited, I felt marginalized as a tourist. People unapologetically walked into my photos, some locals stared when I dined in restaurants, and I was the victim of angry glares when I accidentally bumped into people. And while I considered myself an American tourist, I felt I was lumped into the unspoken “international Asian tourist” group — at one point, I was handed an unsolicited Chinese flyer when neither my family nor I know a word of Mandarin. 


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In some of the places I visited, I felt marginalized as a tourist. People unapologetically walked into my photos, some locals stared when I dined in restaurants, and I was the victim of angry glares when I accidentally bumped into people. And while I considered myself an American tourist, I felt I was lumped into the unspoken “international Asian tourist” group — at one point, I was handed an unsolicited Chinese flyer when neither my family nor I know a word of Mandarin. 




syria

We can make the choice to remain politically unaware. At the end of the day, that only serves to emphasize our privilege. People think they can afford to be incognizant of worldly matters if those matters don’t pertain to them directly, but to do that is the ultimate act of selfishness.












AIDS epidemic

They remember the way in which the epidemic coincided with the emergence of gayborhoods in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, leading the media to perpetuate the misconception that HIV/AIDS was a “gay disease.” They remember friends who spent months and years hospitalized, without a single visit from relatives who abandoned them. They remember checking the obituary section of local and national newspapers quite regularly.



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I shouldn’t have to come up with creative ways to word “camp counselor” in order to sound more accomplished on my resume — a resume that proudly boasts working with kids at a job that is demanding and satisfying should be enough. This philosophy applies to many situations, and I think we as students need to stop focusing so narrowly on creating resumes hopped up on steroids.