Getting home yesterday was surreal. My routine when I get home from school is to lie down on my couch, turn on the television, and open up my laptop. However, as I scrolled down my news feed on Facebook, I saw that an article was quickly trending among my friends who were from the Northeast. The article was titled "Explosions reported near Boston Marathon finish line." At first, I didn't know what to make of this; were they planned explosions (like celebratory fireworks) that went wrong? Was it simply a misleading headline? Worried, I opened and glanced through the article.
My heart sank as I read that there were two bombs that exploded at the finish line of Boston Marathon. I'm not an expert, and I won't pretend to be; I'll leave it up to the feds and the people who have experience in this field to inform us about what happened yesterday. What I'm interested in right now is the aftermath that has ensued because of this tragedy. My first thought was automatic concern for friends who live in the Boston area. Earlier in the day, I had seen dozens of photos and statuses from Facebook friends (admittedly mostly Jumbos) wishing luck to people competing in the Marathon or updating the public on their endeavor to actually participate in it.
While very few of the 2017 Jumbos have met in real life, I felt genuine fear that a fellow Tufts student (or anyone, for that matter) had been injured or hurt by the explosions. I immediately took to the famous Tufts 2017 Facebook group and sent my best wishes to those who were involved some way or another in the Marathon. As news started getting around of the horrible tragedy that had occurred, more and more people sent their thoughts and prayers to Boston. This was such a serendipitously heart-warming experience. While I would much rather have had this not happen, the fact that it did occur made the Class of 2017 closer. All over Twitter and Facebook, people were checking in to let their friends and family know that they were okay. Fellow 2017ers who were at the Marathon or who had family members involved in the event let us know through these social networks that they were okay.
On the news, the Tufts Medical Center was one of many medical institutions mentioned as a place of refuge and assistance for those who were hurt. It made me happy to see that all this talk that we hear about “global leaders” and “active citizenship” isn’t just something that Tufts says to get students to go; when the school say that Jumbos are selfless and truly help others, they mean it. I’ll admit that I was nervous to see that my home for the next four years was the victim of a horrible disaster like this. However, as I saw the courage that the rest of my classmates had and their optimistic, community-oriented approach, I felt at ease and realized that I can’t see myself at anywhere but this amazing university.