It’s hard to make peace with the fact that the world isn’t a safe place, and there aren’t only good people here, and sometimes we make mistakes. It’s easy to look at the news and listen to tragedies and think to ourselves, “This will never happen to me.” But it can, and it does, and it isn’t fair or right or easy. But it’s a reality that became far too real this weekend less than 45 miles away from DePauw’s campus, at Indiana University.
On Friday afternoon, a missing persons report was filed for IU senior, 22 year old Hannah Wilson. She was found on Saturday morning, murdered, alone in a vacant lot. She was two weeks away from walking across the graduation stage in her cap and gown. Her life was ended far too early, and the world lost a daughter, sister, and friend far too soon. As the circumstances surrounding her death have been picked up by any number of local and national news organizations, thousands of people have gathered to mourn her loss.
Friends described her as “the kind of girl who made everyone feel special,” USA Today reported. Everything surrounding the situation is sad, just incredibly sad.
No one will ever know whether her death could have been prevented, and I’m sure her friends who saw her last are reliving those final moments in their heads over and over again. But what did and didn’t happen can’t change the reality of Hannah’s passing, but we can learn from it. And in order for her spirit, and her impact on people to continue on after her, we have to take her experience, and promise to our friends, and our sisters, our brothers, our classmates and our schoolmates and anyone we are around, that we won’t let it happen to them.
We can’t let people get into a taxi alone. We can’t let our friends, our siblings, our cousins, or anyone walk home from a party or even the library by themselves. The risk that something could happen might not seem real, but it is. If there is an unsafe or even if there’s a hint of an unsafe situation, call for help. Leave. Run as fast as you can, screaming at the top of your lungs. The buddy system was made up to help kids understand safety, but it’s more important now, than ever. Why do we abandon the lessons of our youth?
No matter how in control of the situation anyone might feel, if alcohol or any other substance is part of the equation, it will alter anyone’s ability to operate normally, especially in unfamiliar situations. College can feel like a time to go out, and explore, and try new things, and make mistakes, but we can’t ignore that we’re human. We aren’t unbreakable, in fact, we’re very breakable. We need to remember that.
I didn’t know Hannah, and I don’t know if our paths would have ever crossed or if they ever did. But I know that the she touched a lot of hearts, she was loved by many, and she was a daughter, a sister, and a friend to even more. I’m so sorry this happened to you, but I hope you’re in a better place now. Rest easily, Hannah. I hope all people keep you in mind when we’re making sure our friends and ourselves are safe.
Only the good die young.