The Stentorian Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • A Letter of Action and Relief for WNC

    A Letter of Action and Relief for WNC

    By Ellie Murphy, Guest Contributor

    Hello,

    I hope this finds you well. I am writing this to spread information about the vast impacts Hurricane Helene has had on my home community and the surrounding western North Carolina (WNC) region. 

    My family was fortunate enough to be out of town when the hurricane hit and we are safe and physically well. The county I have grown up in almost my entire life, Yancey County, has been virtually destroyed. It has been extremely disheartening to experience this knowing that people in my own state have little to no knowledge about the severity, because of a lack of media and news coverage. 

    I understand that this does not only apply to my county but the entire WNC region. If you are willing to read the following about the situation, I ask that you do so with care and attention to detail. I hope that people can grasp at least a sliver of what my community is going through and find sympathy to donate and reach out to those in need. At the very end of this email are various links to help donate and pictures of my hometown in its current state.

    Before Hurricane Helene even swept through, the region was flooded from predecessor rain events (rain that occurs around 36 hours before a storm and can span 600 miles poleward from the storm’s center). These rain events brought in about 12 inches of rain- enough to flood interstates, fill the ground, and create a few inches or so of present groundwater. Hurricane Helene brought a total of 30 inches to my town Burnsville in Yancey County, NC.

    On Thursday night and Friday into the early afternoon, Hurricane Helene swept through my county. On Friday morning, I was in contact with a friend in my hometown about the conditions of the area where she had already lost power but was able to communicate through her family’s solar-powered satellite wifi. 

    After 10 a.m., I was no longer able to contact anyone from my county or surrounding counties. No one else could communicate either, not within the area or outside of it. To give context, in many of these rural communities, families have lived here for generations. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and other family members (of multiple generations) live in the area and these small towns are all their last names have ever known. This area is also one of the most impoverished areas of the state. 

    For loved ones who were not directly impacted by the storm but were concerned for their family, no communication meant that they had no one to reach out to. Their entire extended family was at risk and suddenly everyone was isolated from one another. Scrolling on Facebook pages of my town was and is still apocalyptic-like. Hours spent scrolling through family members reporting their loved ones missing and asking for any information on specific roads/areas. This absence of communication is still ongoing but has improved daily and there are wifi centers set up, if people can access them.

    My dad is an OB/GYN and travels to regional hospitals for his work. He was working in a hospital just south of Asheville. Even at a hospital, he had no power or service. He reported to us at 4 a.m. on Saturday that he was okay. The hospital had no source of information besides looking out the windows and hearing reports from people stumbling into the building. My dad was also told that he was the only surgeon in the hospital for the day and night he was there. 

    From a friend with a family member who works at the hospital closest to my house, the hospital was again described as “an apocalypse” after the storm passed. With no running water or service, people were showing up at the hospital doors with major injuries, severe limb damage, and pleas for help. 

    The story of a man who was pinned under a tree for three hours is most haunting. A friend shared with my mom the story of a nearby sheriff: how he worked for 72 hours straight rescuing and searching for others; how his team had to leave bodies floating down flood waters; how the death toll is still increasing as more bodies are uncovered.  

    Access to emergency facilities was incredibly limited because of the destruction of the roads. Major interstates are closed between towns and into towns due to fallen trees, mudslides, bridges collapsed, flooding, powerlines down, or the pavement is literally no longer there and swept away by flood waters. This not only applies to major interstates and highways but to almost every single side road, neighborhood, and driveway. 

    The damage to these roads is severely isolating. Without access to homes by car, people must walk for miles to reach a main highway or even any sort of public infrastructure. To provide additional context, Yancey County has a population of about 19,000 and has a square mileage of 312.6 miles. Durham County has a population of about 333,000 and has a square mileage of 287.5 miles. I include this to say there is no large neighborhood. There is not a centralized location. People across my county are incredibly spread out. There is no interstate in my county, only 2 major highways that connect the thousands of side roads. Bridges that connect these roads to the highways are washed out completely. Hundreds of trees and powerlines have fallen on singular driveways. Many live on gravel roads, and those are completely impassable. It will take months and years to fix this issue and until then, traveling to or from home will be impossible or extremely difficult. 

    With this lack of transportation and communication, people are starved of physical resources and resources of knowledge. At this time only a few locations throughout the county have power. Many homes do not have running water, electricity, service, a source of food, or transportation (and for those who do have a way of traveling with their vehicles, there is barely any access to gas). This applies to those fortunate enough to have an intact home. For some, flood waters have destroyed levels of their home, trees have fallen on rooms or entire houses, their houses are completely underwater, mudslides have caused the houses to lose their foundations, or houses near rivers have been swept away entirely. 

    Damage to this extent has not only impacted homes but also cars and public buildings. The post office closest to my house consists of only the cinder block foundation now. I spent my summers swimming in the South Toe River; the swimming hole is down about 20 feet in a ravine from where you park your car. The river is now level with the road. The multiple bridges to access my house are completely washed out. Our neighbors hitchhiked into town to send us an email urging us to not return for a while. 

    I have been fortunate enough to hear from a majority of loved ones, but even 48-72 hours from the storm I worry about friends and valued community members. The majority of people are okay but conditions are terrible. Communities have banded together to make it through this. It will take months and years to reach relative stability.

    I write all of this to provide context that hopefully helps you to understand the severity of the situation. I strongly urge you to share this email or by word of mouth with everyone: spouses, parents, friends, colleagues, teachers, neighbors, anyone. Below are pictures of my hometown and links to ways to donate money and resources. 

    Thank you, 

    Ellie Murphy

    /

    HERE ARE SOME BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS. I HAVE TRIED TO MATCH THE IMAGE OF DESTRUCTION WITH AN IMAGE FROM GOOGLE EARTH A COUPLE YEARS AGO. WHITE BUILDING IS THE POST OFFICE CLOSEST TO MY HOUSE. IT IS NO LONGER THERE AND THE BUILDING DIRECTLY NEXT TO IT IS MISSING A WALL. (ELLIE MURPHY)
    (Ellie Murphy)
    (Ellie Murphy)

    /

    (Ellie Murphy)

  • Western North Carolina Destroyed By Hurricane Helene

    Western North Carolina Destroyed By Hurricane Helene

    DRONE FOOTAGE ON SEPT. 28 SHOWING FLOODING AND DAMAGE IN THE ASHEVILLE AREA AFTER HELENE DUMPED RAIN AND DOWNED TREES ACROSS WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. (WLOS 13 NEWS)

    By Laela Cash, Stentorian Editor-in-Chief

    Editor’s Note: This article was initially planned to be published in October 2024. Due to unprecedented circumstances, it was pushed back to be published in February 2025. The editorial board has decided to publish this article again corresponding with the print release.

    On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina only two days after it made landfall in Florida. The result? Record-breaking flooding and destruction that most would have thought impossible for an area roughly 500 miles away from the ocean. While not only the Western part of the state was affected, it was definitely hit the hardest. 

    In total, 4.5 million people lost power in a week from the hurricane with 1.5 million of those being in North Carolina, according to USA Today. On September 27 alone, there were six confirmed tornadoes across the state with one as far east as Rocky Mount according to the North Carolina State Climate Office. But that was only the beginning.

    The Climate Office also reported that most Western counties got at least a foot of rain, with many reaching over two feet–effectively getting three months’ worth of precipitation in three days. Some areas including Busick, located in Yancey County, got almost three feet. Because of this, rivers including the French Broad, Watagua, Swannanoa and Catawba, almost immediately reached major flood levels and above. This nearly-submerged many towns including Asheville, Black Mountain, Boone, Morganton and Swananoa started to fill with feet of excess water. 

    The NASA Earth Observatory recorded that the French Broad reached a height of 24.7 feet which is a foot higher than the previous record while the Swannanoa River reached a height of 26.1 feet breaking the previous record by over six feet. 

    Asheville flooded rapidly as water flowed down from areas with higher elevation creating landslides along the way. Many areas became completely inaccessible almost immediately, as water breached rooftops. 

    At the same time, the Broad River basin was flooding, resulting in authorities attempting to evacuate areas downstream if the Lake Lure Dam broke while waves of water and debris hit the towns of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. In total, AP News reported that the hurricane brought a total of 40 trillion gallons of water to the Southern United States.

    It wasn’t only flooding that was breaking records. ECONet weather stations measured wind at a speed of 106 miles per hour on Mount Mitchell, making it the highest recorded since 2011. Similarly at Frying Pan Mountain, winds of 87 miles per hour were the highest recorded since 2004.

    Such high winds inevitably led to more dangerous conditions and extreme property damage in addition to flooding. Most roads were immediately closed and travel bans were immediately put in place for the entirety of Western North Carolina. Many counties also enacted curfews to limit unnecessary traffic that may impede the travel of emergency vehicles on the remaining roads that were still accessible. 

    While rescue efforts started immediately, it was a long time before the full extent of the damage was realized and the timeline of recovery is still unsure. However, in the wake of this deadly storm, there has been a lot of false information spread about the aftermath. In order to understand the impact that this hurricane has had on communities in Western North Carolina and to grasp the magnitude of the crisis, it is necessary to understand the factors at play and the extremity of the events.

    (MELISSA SUE GERRITS/GETTY IMAGES)

    Immediate Aftermath

    As the rain started to let up, the full implications of the last three days set in. In the coming days and weeks, emergency services and hundreds of volunteers worked tirelessly to rescue people. These efforts were especially difficult in remote areas that were only accessible by roads that were more or less obliterated. 

    According to The New York Times as of October 22, 2024, across the six states that the hurricane plowed through, more than 200 people have been killed as a direct result of the natural disaster. In North Carolina alone, the death toll is at 96 with 42 of those being from Buncombe County with 26 people who are still reportedly missing. 

    According to AP News, hospitals almost immediately become overwhelmed. Additionally, many were running on backup generators after the power went out and therefore had limited capabilities while some had to close completely. Mission Hospital in Asheville set up mobile units in the days after the hurricane, offering showers, handwashing stations, and free food, water, and toiletries. According to WRAL News, these tents were only possible because of federal relief and they also allowed the hospital’s staff to treat more people. This was extremely necessary as the hospital was reportedly over 200% capacity on September 27.

    While some may regard property loss as more easily replaceable compared to lives, property damage is still life-changing. Governor Roy Cooper’s administration released a statement on October 23 estimating 53 billion dollars in damage. 

    Almost everyone who was lucky enough to still have their homes lost electricity, water, and cell service. Two weeks after the hurricane, roughly 14,000 people still did not have power in the state according to NPR. Many people, especially those in the Asheville area, went even longer, according to the city. However, Citizen Times reported as of October 18 that only 95% of that water is potable and therefore everyone is being told to boil their water. Without the internet, many people turned to Starlink as their only way to communicate with their loved ones.

    Even so, many people did not have the option of getting away from these conditions, not only did they not have the resources to do so but also because the roads were destroyed in many cases, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.

    (JACOB BIBA/ASHEVILLE CITIZEN TIMES)

    Why Was Helene’s Impact So Surprising?

    According to BBC Weather, one of the reasons that the storm’s large impact was unexpected is due to how rapidly it grew. It drew a great deal of its energy and momentum from warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. 

    The local News and Observer interviewed head of N.C. State University’s Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department Gary Lackmann in order to answer this question. He stated that these waters were warmer than usual due to global warming saying that the Gulf of Mexico had a surface temperature of 86.7 degrees Fahrenheit, which is over two degrees higher than the average previous average, while the hurricane was forming. He explained that water vapor, created due to warm ocean temperatures, fuels hurricanes. 

    Right before the hurricane hit Florida, it quickly strengthened from Category One to Category Four in just a few days. This hurricane in particular, also had a much larger cloud cover and wind field compared to others, reported BBC. However, this does not entirely explain why the hurricane reached the usually unaffected Appalachian mountains. 

    Why Did Residents Not Evacuate?

    One of the largest reasons is that the Western part of the state is rarely majorly affected by hurricanes. 

    Some people were entirely unaware that the storm was coming because they did not expect it to become so relevant to their safety. Most eyewitness and news sources say that the last time a hurricane substantially hit the Appalachian Mountains was in 2004. So, not only were many new residents unaware of this possibility, but even people who had lived through hurricane damage in 2004 would’ve believed that another would be an unlikely occurrence. This was further extenuated by the fact that the hurricane grew very quickly giving residents little time to adequately prepare or make evacuation plans.

    Additionally, according to the Washington Post, disaster experts evacuation would have been extremely difficult if not impossible based on the terrain and geography especially because there are often only a few ways to get in and out of remote, mountainous areas. Also, there are no evacuation routes designated by round, blue signs like there often are in coastal communities. For that matter, there are also no flood sirens due to the general lack of flood prevention infrastructure. 

    Western North Carolina is known internationally for our beautiful forests and mountains, but Hurricane Helene brought devastation to ways of living and infrastructure on a scale no one could have predicted. The floods washed away not just homes and businesses, but the sense of safety and security that the mountains once offered. 

    Families are now left piecing together shattered lives in a place that once seemed untouched by such catastrophic storms. The road to recovery will not only be long but also a challenge as they rebuild what was lost and grapple with speculation of what factors intensified the aftermath in the first place. Yet, amidst the destruction, there is resilience—in time, the communities of Western North Carolina will rebuild as they already are working with help from the many volunteers who have stepped up to help and donations from across the country. 

    As someone from Western North Carolina, I urge you to do your research–this is only an overview of the full story. Everyone’s experiences are different and important. And after understanding that many people lost everything in just a few days, please help in any way that you can. We will link additional resources on our website to help you do so.

  • Why “Locking In” At The Library Is Hard To Accomplish

    Why “Locking In” At The Library Is Hard To Accomplish

    (Lily Galapon)

    By Lily Galapon, Guest Contributor

    At almost any other library, one would imagine the academic environment as a reserved intellectual harbor, a collective haven for students to hone in on their work and reach an optimal state of focus. In nearly every other circumstance, libraries are equated to silent reservoirs of studying, enforced by a constant need to keep one’s voice down. From the moment one usually walks through the door comes a shift in the atmosphere, of conversations softening, the mind preparing to sharpen for the day’s load of assignments. However, at the Borden Mace Library, many NCSSM students experience quite the opposite phenomenon. 

    Especially at the beginning of the year, many members of the junior population have fallen victim to finding the school’s arguably loudest landscape, expecting to find a familiar space for concentration. Of all places, the scene at the Borden Mace library has ironically turned more social than studious. But how did this come to be? 

    Through a spatial perspective, the NCSSM website states how “the Learning Commons design of our Library creates a warm environment for interaction, inspiration, and creativity with spaces designed specifically for individuals and groups,” emphasizing the school’s importance for students to foster relationships with one another to academically succeed. The library has incorporated many openly-spaced design elements for groups of students to work together in, whether that be the multiple yellow study rooms built along the left wall of the space, or the many circular tables, some of which are embedded within the not-so-soundproof glass lounges. By incorporating friendly architectural designs to bring people together, Borden Mace has allowed positive community building to prosper–though, often with its downsides. 

    Because the library has majorly devoted the working space for groups of people, a lot of students are naturally inclined to hang out with their friends, leading to an avoidance of accomplishing the objective at hand: Their assignments. As one junior complains how “all of my friends are there and I can’t lock in…there’s no quiet rule”, the social restrictions of the library–or lack thereof, have allowed noise levels to get extremely high without consequences. This has contributed to the development of an unbounded gregarious workspace with little to no “work” getting done. One senior notes how “a library is a social place, not a study place”, highlighting the reality for many other students how the design features of Borden Mace have strayed far from its original purpose. 

    However, the bustling scene at the library is not inherently bad for those who need to finish their work. One student states, “The library is a place to socialize and interact, but it has areas where you can lock in, like the little cubbies at the sides and the quiet rooms”, showing how while much of the area has been mapped out for groups of people to collaborate (or socialize), there are still individualistic spaces for students to meaningfully their work–one just has to make sure to not overlook them, and create real action in finding a spot with less social distractions. 

    While strife with socialization with its people-friendly architectural features, the Borden Mace Library has not necessarily become a doomed place for studying. The flexible grounds for academic collaboration do not automatically lead to collective loss of concentration among students, but could instead allow the enhancement of it as long as one takes initiative in how to approach their work, and where to mark the line between studying and socializing. 

  • We Were Left Behind During Fall Break

    We Were Left Behind During Fall Break

    (Mabel Kennedy)

    By Mabel Kennedy, Stentorian Staff Writer

    After the grueling month that was September, while still trying to get back into the flow of neverending schoolwork, shining ahead like a golden prize was the promise of Fall Break. 

    This promise was gracefully fulfilled for some students of NCSSM but for others was nothing but a cruel joke in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Normally, students would fill out the fall break form, clicking the Asheville bus as their mode of transportation or would return home by getting picked up, a long commute looming overhead regardless. 

    On Thursday, September 26, as the hurricane steadily approached, students with homes in Western North Carolina were restless to see the effects left behind as we huddled in the Greynolds tunnel, feeling the weight of the continuous tornado warnings. 

    At this point, the Asheville bus was pushed back from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning because of uncertain dangerous road conditions. At this point my peers and I were overall disappointed, but grateful we still had the chance to leave. Many opted for the optimistic point of view where we got to stay overnight at our empty school, seeing it as a challenge rather than a letdown. However, this quickly shifted to the latter as the bus was delayed even further to Friday afternoon. 

    Many, including myself, began echoing the question, “Will we even make it back?” At this point, numerous students were not able to get into contact with their families and friends back home, unable to update them on the bus’ wavering plans of departure. 

    We were left behind and in the dark. Time stretched by slowly as we were on edge, unsure of our family and friends’ safety, and bound to the school’s premises which disallowed us from leaving.

    For seniors, the option of college applications was available to kill time. For juniors, it was late work that needed to be completed. However, this proved to be useless as all attention and concentration was on our communities nestled in the Appalachian mountains. 

    According to Bella Rizzuto ’26: “Everything was up in the air. I didn’t know if my family or house was okay, at this point I hadn’t been able to get into contact with them for over a day.” Similar sentiments were echoed by the remaining students left at school.

    Despite the situation, the CCs and faculty came together to try and make the best out of the very apparent, bad situation. The boxed lunches and breakfasts turned into outings to get pizza at Costco and a group trip to Chancellor Todd Roberts’ hospitable home. Despite NCSSM staff being flexible and understanding, the students were still frustrated as the new update regarding the bus departing time pinged on our phones. We are unsure of when the bus will be able to depart. 

    Slowly, as news filtered out of the mountains we were greeted with stories of flooding, collapsed bridges, and fallen trees on buildings. 

    From the fifteen students delayed, it turned to twelve and later dwindled to three left, spending the entire fall break on campus, unable to return home. 

  • Why You Should Consider Joining RHum

    By Marcellus Day, Stentorian Staff Writer

    While many seniors are thinking of college admission, many juniors are thinking of a different type of admission: the one for research. A common question asked is should one do RSci or Research in the Humanities (RHum)? The answer is why not both, and furthermore, why not RHum? 

    Earlier this year, Teresa Fang ‘25 wrote an astonishing article where she emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary academics and practice. This couldn’t be more true; the limits of research are never confined to just one field. 

    If one wishes to be an effective academic, one should be well versed in all their curiosity–including ones that are not traditionally considered “useful”, which is in quotes as when one says not useful they usually mean not profitable. As Fang points out, the tools humanities arm you with go beyond your humanities research and into effectively communicating, critically thinking and questioning. So, then why not research the humanities?

    The common answer to this is that it’s not “useful,” but useful is not used in the sense of profit but of leverage. So here’s a sense of truth: a college will not accept you purely because you are in impressive, STEM focused academic programs. 

    You can do a hundred RSci programs, and still not be what they are looking for. They are looking for your curiosity. What sparks it and do you follow it? If a humanities question sparks you, follow it, and even if you have no specific question let your interest as a human lead you. The follow-through of something that captivates you, is way more impressive than something you did to put on your resume. RHum is designed to captivate and explore captivation. 

    Additionally, humanities research goes beyond the capabilities of science research. Certainly, there are some questions that are furthered by science, but Humanities doesn’t serve as an add-on to pick up where STEM drops off, it goes where STEM cannot. Humanities concerns itself with questions not necessarily bound by the same restrictions as STEM, not to say that humanities doesn’t come with its own complex restrictions. You are bound by human thought, records, and where you can take yourself. We can take the work of STEM and apply it, as questions of AI usage, or we can take it outside of the science sphere and expand. 

    Make no mistake, however, I am not arguing against the RSci programs; I do hobbyist research in math and believe that you should go where curiosity leads you. I am arguing for your serious consideration of all Research in the Humanities programs, despite the doubts rebuked above. It is an experience that strengthens the heart and skills of a researcher, and if not that is sure is a lot of fun. 

    Here are some of the research opportunities in the Humanities!

    Research Experience in the Humanities, (REXHum)

    Available to all students who have completed AmStud I, this course serves as the introduction to humanities research for all who are interested, even if you have conducted research in the past. Students learn the basic skills of research, and produce a thesis. This course is available to juniors and seniors and is a choice for a prerequisite of RHum.

    Summer Research in the Humanities, (SRIPHum)This program introduces students to research inside and outside of archives, libraries, and the world. A three-week program during the summer, students get the opportunity to travel to diverse museums and research a question of their choice. The student will produce an abstract, that they will get to present to a group of peers, and at the SRIP Showcase. This is a summer experience offered to juniors via application, and can also serve as a prerequisite for RHum alternatively to REXHum.

    Research in the Humanities (RHum)

    This is a course taught in the fall semester surrounding your research. The course aims to encourage students to enhance their reading and writing skills while expanding their knowledge in general topics and their research questions of choice. Students will produce a full research paper and will have the chance to be published in Fifth World, the student humanities research journal of NCSSM. This course is only for seniors who have met the RHum requirements.

    Luckily, for both juniors and seniors, there is still time to apply and do research! I do hope that you consider, apply, and pursue any curiosity of the humanities; it is a worthy pursuit. 

  • Hidden Ethics of Biomedical Communication on Eating Disorders

    Hidden Ethics of Biomedical Communication on Eating Disorders

    By Teresa Fang, Stentorian Editor-in-Chief

    The name “eating disorders” (EDs) may seem straightforward, but they are one of the most misunderstood conditions. The rise of attractive, accessible social media has exposed mass populations to messages conflating the ideas of body image and health. EDs impact a broad spectrum of the population and for many different reasons and ways, making recovery complex; 1 in 11 Americans—or 28.8 million people—will develop an ED in their lifetime. For young people, 13 percent of adolescents will develop an ED by the age of 20.

    Today, a general distrust of mainstream media outlets has led the public to flock to other reliable sources, leading medical sites to skyrocket in popularity and engagement. Modern readers are obsessed with personal image, and sites have adjusted and seen a drastic rise in health facts and biomedical communication. The seriousness of possible actions and repercussions has pushed objective data-driven information to subjective opinion-based suggestions, vulnerable to dishonest and dangerous arrangements to lead to misinformation, fearmongering, and competition. Thus, it is paramount that the general public becomes aware of the avenues of language a science communication piece possesses over their subjects and readers, especially with a topic so universal and nuanced yet often overlooked as eating disorders.

    Language by the writer

    To have a context for the ethical intricacy of biomedical communication when it comes to EDs, we must first look at the basic information available to the general public on the Internet. A quick Google of one of the most prevalent eating disorders, anorexia (even so, “anorexia” is an umbrella term for other EDs), will take us to the first search result by Mayo Clinic.

    Like many informational websites, this article starts with an overview of the subject but its language regresses on the verge of being a piece of scientific writing versus giving directions as if it is the widely-accepted truth. A growing subjective language used to describe anorexia, which still is a widely-debated topic to be categorized medically, effectively freezes the process of teaching anorexia to telling readers how to see anorexics, disqualifying the root issue as how to deal with the aftermath rather than deal with how anorexia is borne in the minds of anorexics in the first place. The writers of Mayo Clinic unconsciously adopt this false essentialization of all anorexics as people who have no self-control, have unrealistic perceptions of life, have fatphobia, and starve themselves for personal validation of their self-worth.

    This is not to casually accuse Mayo Clinic of scientific misrepresentation. They are among the world’s largest and most influential medical nonprofits, rated as the No. 1 hospital in the world for the past six years in the global hospital rating. In the organization’s mission and values statement, Mayo Clinic claimed that its vision is “transforming medicine to connect and cure as the global authority in the care of serious or complex disease” (Mayo Clinic); they view success as the paradigm of scientific progress and social compassion, a representation of their patients by collaboration so close to their patients the doctors can be called patients themselves. 

    Interpretations by the reader

    As seen in Figure 1, a person with anorexia may interpret the language as hypocritical or as further justification to continue their starvation behaviors to be “better” or thinner than other anorexics for more societal attention and praise. With this article and that of other biomedical communication writers from organizations such as the National Eating Disorders Association and Healthline, the lines between objectiveness and subjectiveness are easily blurred.

    At the same time, these texts gain traction on the Internet because of their authority and wide acceptance. Articles by lesser-known professionals and experts are often buried underneath higher-standing ethos, albeit they may provide the same information about eating disorders but at a level easier to digest and understand for both general audiences and people with EDs, like citizen science.

    In a 2022 blog post on Octave, a mental health care provider-based company, author TJ Mocci explains why EDs are difficult to understand, along with suggestions on how to support people struggling with an ED. The ethos of the writer as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the logos of the broad but niche language become a powerfully visceral tool for the blog in promoting understanding in a non-triggering way; the use of targetted facts and statistics are reminiscent of active listening strategies that make an effort to understand what the other person is trying to communicate, making them feel less alone.

    In regards to research articles that describe the latest updates/breakthroughs in producing medical cures for EDs, many articles are sourced from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision, which places the majority of the symptoms of each ED on physical symptoms, remaining vague in its behavioral ones, to categorize patients. Mocci utilizes careful wording, like pronouns, and lists “common signs,” not “symptoms,” of an eating disorder to inform readers how to be good allies/supporters. These are mostly behavioral, which is less emotionally/psychologically triggering and less likely to appeal as a fairy tale weight loss story. Intentional language can address readers directly and allows for a reader with an ED to gain sympathy for third parties, who may or may not also have EDs, which in turn allows them to gain sympathy for themselves.

    Misinterpretations

    As with any piece of writing, it is impossible to avoid misinterpretations, but the writer must be especially careful when consciously choosing language and interpretation to teach science because their work is dependent upon honesty. Some articles can fulfill both obligations; Mocci’s Octave blog can both inform and generate sympathy. This article promotes a pragmatic way for individuals, families, and communities to help people with EDs recover fundamentally. Other articles may disregard language and interpretation to get their information across. The growing demand to get immediate answers at its extremes has altered people’s perceptions of honesty. Technology has superseded honesty to dangerous trust. Now, more than ever, biomedical communication must be aware of the nature of this ethic.

    An excerpt of Mayo Clinic’s article on Anorexia nervosa (Mayo Clinic, 2018) with annotations by a person with anorexia (Anna Tringale).
  • “Gilmore Girls” Raised Me and How it Continues To Do So Today

    “Gilmore Girls” Raised Me and How it Continues To Do So Today

    By Tejasvi Shirolkar, Guest Contributor

    (Tejasvi Shirolkar)

    Every October, I tend to grab some stovetop popcorn, snuggle up in a warm comforter, and relish in the joy of watching my comfort show: “Gilmore Girls.” As a devout viewer of the 2000’s based show, I recently restarted Season 1 and watched up to Season 4 over Fall Break. Not only does “Gilmore Girls” hold and teach valuable lessons about resilience, perseverance, and hardship, but the more I watched the show, the more I realized how much it mirrored my own life at NCSSM. 

    Disclaimer: this article only discusses Seasons 1-4, which is what I felt was relevant to my experience as an NCSSM student.

    Season 1

    Season 1 starts by introducing the main characters in “Gilmore Girls”: Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. Lorelai, a 32-year-old at the time, had her daughter Rory at just sixteen years old. The clash between Lorelai and her parents, Emily and Richard, is seen early on in the season, as Lorelai goes to ask her parents for tuition money for Rory’s new acceptance into an elite private school, Chilton. 

    While I had watched “Gilmore Girls” several times, the imposter syndrome Rory experiences in Season 1 resonated with me in my latest rewatch. Coming from a large, mainly sports-oriented public high school, my experience at NCSSM so far has surfaced some of the same feelings Rory encounters in Season 1. With such talented students, Chilton and NCSSM create similar atmospheres. The self-doubt, self-criticism, and fear of failure are feelings both Rory and I have encountered at our new high schools. 

    Season 2

    Season 2reveals the messy reality of adolescence for many individuals, as Jess arrives in town. Jess, a “bad boy,” toys at Rory’s heartstrings, as she struggles to grapple the balance with Dean, her boyfriend at the time, his distaste regarding Jess, and her blooming friendship with Jess. Season 2 reminds viewers of what it means to be a teenager; making a mess and trying to balance schoolwork, family, and friends, all while finding one’s identity.

    While NCSSM students live on campus, we can share similar stories. Personally, learning to live and function at a new school while balancing keeping connections with friends and family back home has been daunting. However, after stepping on campus I soon came to realize the friendships, faculty, and staff make any heartache surrounding home worth it. 

    Season 3

    Season 3 starts off on a good note. Rory is accepted into Harvard, Yale, and Princeton University. While there is some unrest in this season when Rory decides which college to commit to, the sheer amount of joy that Season 3 brings to the show is partly the reason I keep coming back to “Gilmore Girls” every October. Later, Rory graduates from Chilton as valedictorian and presents a heartwarming and emotional speech at her ceremony that even I teared up at. Rory truly becomes the pinnacle of a Chilton student here; somebody who is motivated, fierce, and a leader.

    Every person I meet at NCSSM exemplifies those same qualities–driven, passionate and lively. Coming from a large high school, I found community in very few people. In contrast, the name itself of being an NCSSM student holds weight, and the pride I have felt to be at this school is unlike any other I have experienced before. 

    Season 4

    To preface, I would like to write that when watching Season 4 for the first time, I was utterly disappointed. Season 4 is littered with Rory’s failures–from rekindling her relationship with her [now married] ex-boyfriend to struggling to navigate her new life in college. Season 4 serves as a sharp contrast to Season 3.

    We’ve all heard it: failure is a part of life. However, based on my past month at NCSSM, I have noticed that the concept seems to be less prevalent in most students’ past lives. The last two months of being on campus have provided me with a multitude of obstacles; from managing difficult classes to deciding which extracurriculars to immerse myself into, NCSSM has been incredibly overwhelming. However, I soon realized that NCSSM is the place to fail; I will truly never have such a supportive environment to grow and learn from my mistakes.

    “Gilmore Girls” is the show that raised my childhood. I began watching as a timid sixth grader, scared of the at-the-time unknown COVID-19. Following Rory’s educational journey through Chilton was inspiring as “Gilmore Girls” gave me somebody to look up to, even if they were fictional. For this reason, whenever I see the leaves turn orange and the air become crisp, I hope the little girl inside me feels proud as I click play on a new episode.

  • Damage Deferred: In Photos, Videos, Emails and Petri Dishes

    Damage Deferred: In Photos, Videos, Emails and Petri Dishes

    By The Stentorian Editorial Board

    This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Stentorian Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Stentorian editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

    Note to readers from the Editorial Board: If there are any discrepancies we missed in this story or additions you would like to make, please email us at stentoriansocials@gmail.com

    Corrections on 10/27: Greg Powell informed us that he was not forced to resign by administration. Arts instructor Carrie Alter told us that our previous mention of “band-aid solutions” was done by administration in good faith, there is no other plan to move art classes to modular units, and the temperatures are inaccurate. Those descriptions have been removed from this editorial.

    Prospective students and their families walk into Bryan lobby and read about some events in the history of the school since its transformation from the Watts Hospital: from the black-and-white photo of our three founders and the expansion of residential and online cohorts to Guinness World Records and opening Morganton.

    Warmed up to the quiet vibe of Bryan lobby at noon, their top picks from the marketplace of Wikipedia-able information, and a deluge of selective marketing from the administration, they start their tours smiling–pleased to have arrived at such a pristine and well-established school. In other words, they had finally attained thinking in the way of the institution.

    It helped that NCSSM’s public persona didn’t really open up their minds in the first place. 

    What the public don’t know are the health hazards arising from the aging and neglected campus infrastructure, which have been growing from years of deferred maintenance–a challenge made greater each day that NCSSM pushes back against calls to double down on maintenance, management, and budget needs from the students and employees who actually live here 24/7.

    In a school where, according to ncssm.edu, “Igniting innovation, cultivating community” is the tongue-twisting slogan deserving the most attention and thought, it is no wonder that people dismiss superficial meanings as anything but professional institutional values–a way to dodge questions and concerns in acts of hypocrisy, censorship, and an obsession with temporary solutions. 

    To get a scope of the damage, we have constructed this narrative of words, emails, photos, videos, PDFs, and quotes to this article in hopes of readers grasping the severity and urgency of this issue.

    Soft & Hard Censorship

    On September 18, Carter Smith ‘25 published a post in the Parents of NCSSM Students (Past, Present, & Future) Facebook group, beginning with “Dear NCSSM Parents, Resident of Hunt have potentially been exposed to carbon monoxide, mold, fungi, and other toxic if not deadly chemicals,” followed by a redirecting to a YouTube channel (“Mech Anek”) containing video evidence of the stated health hazards. 

    When Stentorian staff spoke to Smith in a private conversation, Smith revealed he was originally going to wait to publish the post until after his meeting with the Associate Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Students Jennifer Ashe the next day. The belief that “people deserve to look at how messed up the data is for themselves” first outweighed that prerequisite. 

    “It is obviously not the parents’ responsibility to provide solutions to this issue; it is the administration’s job to ensure the safety of the students while they are at the school,” Smith said. 

    He told us he had been interested in getting to the bottom of the issue–literally, as Mech Anek’s videos show rusted-through flues leaking chemicals in Hunt’s underground and in-wall HVAC systems–since former 3rd East CC Greg Powell told Smith about concerning information on residential health and safety. 

    Since Powell joined NCSSM in March 2023, he had been increasingly voicing his concerns to the administration to fix Hunt’s frequent flooding issues, damp walls, and more. The Stentorian Editorial Board initiated multiple attempts to contact Powell for a private interview but we were unable to continue communicating after he resigned and moved off campus on September 22.

    Former electrical worker by the alias of “Mech Anek” uploaded the videos he took of various electrical and moldy places above Watts, in Hunt, outdoors, etc. to his YouTube channel. Here are three descriptions of his videos. (YouTube)

    Mech Anek had a similar story: behind the moniker was an unnamed mechanical worker contracted with the school through a third party maintenance company. He was fired in May 2024 by NCSSM for uploading the videos, the screenshots of three of his six YouTube videos provided in this article. One description reveals administration’s (“he,” referring to Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Chief Campus Officer of NCSSM-Durham, Terry Lynch) shocking response to the worker’s safety concerns of the live feed.

    “…he harassed me over pathetic hearsay. He acted as if he didn’t understand what I was telling him about the potential of the students or employees getting hurt,” Mech Anek wrote under a video published on August 22 about NCSSM’s chiller. 

    Nine screenshots from Mech Anek’s YouTube channel, which includes six videos and five shorts – all of various places around NCSSM-Durham’s campus that are electrical and health hazards. (Mech Anek)

    As another current maintenance employee (unnamed for safety reasons) described, Mech Anek was “telling too many truths and bruising too many egos.”

    “We just want to know that the students are living in a safe environment,” Smith said. “When we see these videos online and take a look at the filtres, walls, mold, and environment that students are living in, it is not unreasonable for us to have some serious concerns.”

    Hypocrisy & Denial

    Four hours after Smith’s meeting with Ashe, all residential students, faculty, and parents received an email written by Lynch, sent by Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and Chief Communications Officer Bryan Gilmer.

    As we take a look at the email’s attached report from Terracon (above), there are several issues. Two of the biggest things to consider lie within the specificity and selectiveness of sampling. Firstly, in the Limitations section: “The scope of services was limited to mold sampling as directed by the client.” Who was the client? If the school wants to not be shut down because of mold issues, then it would make sense to direct the sampling elsewhere, in a blatant act of denial of the risk already growing. And where was the danger growing?

    Secondly, in the Mold Result Summary Tables, Terracon (as directed by the “client”) tested the exterior of the art building. They did not test inside any rooms or bathrooms that may potentially have mold under tiles damaged by water or behind bubbling, peeling paint. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mold may begin growing indoors when mold spored land on wet surfaces, and no mold grows without water or moisture. So why test for mold in the hallways and outside the buildings, when mold is prevalent where water is coming inside? Had Terracon and the client considered conducting visual assessments inside the buildings?

    Students from the Research in Biology programs have conducted this black mold testing themselves, through a more traditional but all the while more visual means: swabbing surfaces throughout campus and growing colonies in agar petri dishes. Covering both female and male residence halls, air vents, and even bathroom faucets, they note notably high quantities of black mold in Hunt and Greynolds.

    Mold growing in a petri dish with a sample taken from the opening of a Beall air vent. (Anna Tringale & Aretha Datta)
    (Skyler Qu)

    “Essentially, from the petri dishes I’ve collected school-wide, I can confidently say that there is not a single residence hall on this campus that does not show notable quantities of mold,” said Anna Tringale ‘25. They are also one of seven Sustainability Project Leaders (SPLs) at NCSSM-Durham. “Still, it’s absolutely essential to remember that just because there is mold in a room, that doesn’t necessarily mean students are at severe risk of health impacts or sickness.” 

    Some mold seemed to grow inside the agar, which is something unheard of before to Aretha Datta ‘25. “Generally, when something grows on one of our agar plates, it grows on top of the agar. But this mold had somehow gotten inside the agar,” she said. “Up close, there were small vein-like structures as well. I’m honestly not really sure what this means, but I can tell that there is clearly mold in our room, and we should be concerned.”

    The Stentorian also has firsthand experience and evidence of denial, or put differently, the lack of acceptance. On Friday, October 18, editor-in-chief Teresa Fang visited Lynch’s office and successfully scheduled an interview with him for the coming Monday, followed by an email confirmation that night. On Monday, no response from Lynch prompted her to send an email at noon with a list of six questions for him to answer via email. However, he responded as he was leaving the building that day, saying he would answer those by “tomorrow afternoon” as he didn’t have time to reply on Monday.

    The response received from Lynch was not unexpected, but instead dismissive yet equally revealing. For starters, he did not attempt to answer any of the questions provided, but provided the same information he stated earlier in Gilmer’s September 18 email. The lack of a directional response compels the Editorial Board to conclude there is also a lack of direction in demonstrating improvement for students’ success and wellbeing, two important words in the NCSSM Strategic Plan 2024-2030.

    The Stentorian also requested an interview with Ashe, but she declined to comment.

    “Students still have every right to be concerned. It’s their life, it’s their room, and even small one-time exposures can get certain individuals sick,” Tringale added.

    Obsessed With Temporary Solutions

    By now, it is clear there are many open faucets and loose ends to this narrative. One way to enter this story is through the art studio’s wall collapsing into the interior over the Summer Research and Innovation Program (SRIP) in June, due to a rainstorm’s effects on the never-renovated-before Watts Hospital walls. 

    The hole in the wall of the green screen room in the art studio on June 27, 2024, revealing the original brick wall and the materials used to insulate the room of the century-old Watts Hospital. Formerly, the art studio was an operating room where doctors carried out surgeries. (Teresa Fang)

    Likewise, the art studio’s predicament is also reflective of NCSSM’s current progress on campus “repairs”–if layers and layers of temporary solutions can be regarded as proper repair. Since last school year, the walls bleed water and white dust upon rain, human touch, or even small breezes, and one brick tile hangs precariously above the glass ceiling in the painting studio. When this school year started, rust was falling from an old gas hood and onto students’ workspaces in the advanced art studio. AR4110 Painting has already temporarily moved all their easels and paints to a meeting room in the library.

    As we have learned in EN4610 Research in Humanities, displacement does not solve any deep-rooted problems. It can position vulnerable groups of people in even more vulnerable locations. We wonder, then, what kinds of discussions our peers, parents, and teachers would be willing to incorporate into our everyday lives, classes, and our ways of thinking. Until NCSSM can express views that genuinely respond to the concerns of those most impacted and invested in student success and wellbeing at NCSSM without the fear of negatively-impacting their public persona, we strongly disagree with the methods and language used by the administration to defer campus maintenance. 

    Today, students are acutely aware that whenever there is vapor arising from the metal manholes on the ground, it indicates that a major HVAC pipe is broken and leaking natural gas somewhere. (Teresa Fang)

    If NCSSM is actually serious about addressing student success and wellbeing, it must demonstrate improvement in the largest concern of students, families, and faculty first: the school’s dilapidating campus. Until then, we worry that the future of our school will become nothing more than a moldy institution, more so than the 100-year-old Watts Hospital it used to be in the very beginning.

  • Two Years After a Damning IPCC Climate Report, Put Aside Your Attitude and Sympathy

    Two Years After a Damning IPCC Climate Report, Put Aside Your Attitude and Sympathy

    Teresa Fang.

    By Teresa Fang, Stentorian Editor-in-Chief

    In this fantasy, it’s the last day before winter break, and she’s placing her foot in the optimal position to spring up from her seat and be the first one out the door. Her eyes — always big and round and beautiful — reflect the words coming out of her mouth. It echoes what the crowd is saying, let’s go to the beach!

    In this fantasy, I can’t get through an afternoon drive without remembering all the things I’ve read on the billboards and graffiti on the road signs. Photographic memory. I look forward to getting home, full of the strangers who say “God bless you” on their cardboard signs at traffic signals and disappear into thin air on hot days because they’ve all appeared in our house. She’s watching on TV the latest updates of the barrier wall around New York City, and we giggle because it looks like a scene from that anime with the titans.

    In this one, the ground trembles and that’s the signal that another glacier has been dethroned, and she looks at me with fear and confusion; I meet her with the same. We must check on our sand castles before the sea swallows them forever.

    In this one, we catch picnics at the park in the windows between droughts and tornadoes so that we don’t mess up counting the millions of freckles on our faces. She takes out the vegetarian sandwiches for us to eat, and I wrinkle my nose to protest as if my bloodline has never eaten vegetables before. They’re wrapped in yellow paper, but under this sun it looks black.

    In this fantasy, water tastes like smoke. We live up in mountains and underground like moles, and racism doesn’t exist because we’re all red from the freezing cold or the bitter heat. I tell her I’m dying.

    —–

    We live in extraordinary times for the understanding of science. Before January 2024, I thought I was strictly a humanities student—I was content writing about how humans interact with the environment rather than conducting climate research myself. But as I dug deeper, I realized thatlearning about a problem was just as important as being part of the solution. And, if it’s possible to be the solution, I’d rather be the solution. So, in January 2024, I also became a STEM student, creating a climate model to predict sea level rise to help coastal communities.

    Global climate models (GCMs) are continually created or updated in the scientific world. These models are tuned and validated using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). These scenarios predict climate behavior based on projections of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, atmospheric concentrations, air pollutant emissions, and land use. The IPCC has ruled these scenarios for all countries from the most to the least predicted GHG emissions: RCP8.5, RCP6.0, RCP4.5, and RCP2.6.

    Where are we now? In 2022, the IPCC released a report based on 14,000 scientific papers from over 300 authors, stating that Earth’s temperature will reach the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius within 20 years. This report is described by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres as an “atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.” As of 2024, we are following the highest prediction pathway: RCP8.5. This predicts that by 2081-2100, temperatures will increase by 3.7 degrees Celsius, global sea levels will rise by 0.63 meters, and extreme weather will greatly increase.

    I won’t overwhelm you with more numbers; you can read about them in news articles and reports. You’ve likely already heard about rising sea levels, climate protests, and species extinction due to global warming and deforestation.

    Perhaps you believe every update, every statistic, and every quote you read., And, when you open the weather app on your phone and see a week of rain or above 90° temperatures, you may even shed one or two tears for our poor planet. 

    Or you may have attitude. It’s just the same thing every day! I get it!

    Or maybe you’ll join the climate protesters for a bit. Stop cutting down our trees! Or you’ll join the counter-protest. Extremely Mad Scientist! It’s So Severe, The Nerds Are Here!

    Then we’ll go back to living our lives.

    Historically, climate research has been met with skepticism and denialism. When the journal Science published a letter signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences in May 2010, it began with, “We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything.”

    But political exposure twists the interpretation:

    2011. Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. “We don’t know what’s causing climate change, and the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try and reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”

    2015. US Senator Ted Cruz. “Any good scientist questions all science. If you show me a scientist who stops questioning science, I’ll show you someone who isn’t a scientist.”

    2016. Donald Trump wanted to eliminate all climate research done by NASA. “Mr. Trump’s decisions will be based upon solid science, not politicized science,” said his top NASA adviser Bob Walker.

    2024 is still the same. “Can you imagine, this guy says global warming is the greatest threat to our country?” Trump referred to President Joe Biden at a rally in June, which had the hottest June in recorded history across the globe. “Global warming is fine. In fact, I heard it was going to be very warm today. It’s fine.”

    Now, the problem isn’t simply misinformation and believability about climate science. Yes, science produces findings that reveal something true (or close to true) about nature based on evidence. But what we need the general public to know is not a better understanding of those findings, but a better understanding of what makes those findings distinctive. 

    Some believe the philosophy of science is based on the idea that the “scientific method,” if rigorously applied, always produces good science. Twentieth-century philosopher Karl Popper warned against this, citing the problem of demarcation: a theory can’t be correct unless it can be proven wrong. In other words, it might be that people don’t believe in climate change because they don’t recognize its effects in their daily lives.

     Conducting research is not something that anybody can jump into and do, but it was through experiencing research firsthand that I knew the severity of climate change. My classmates, who are also conducting climate research, now know that. We are lucky to have the resources and opportunity to do that. 

    We can’t pretend that our efforts won’t be heard because we’re just one person.  I can’t “solve” climate change,” and neither can a whole country. But I can recognize the differences in my life that climate change is making, and I am not comfortably numb enough to sit still and live with what I don’t like. At its core, what makes science distinctive is its purpose to make people care about things bigger than themselves. It’s not the subject or method of inquiry but the values and behavior of those engaged in it that make science matter.

  • Strip Away the Retrospect To Truly See Juniors

    Strip Away the Retrospect To Truly See Juniors

    Anneliese Heyder.

    By Lily Galapon, Guest Contributor

    It has been almost a month since becoming a junior at NCSSM. Over the course of four weeks, I adjusted to the unpredictable schedule of classes, with unfamiliar faces shifting into friends. To look back and feel as though the first week was ages ago registers as surreal. 

    Yet, I still remember the burning heat of the first Ice Cream Social, of learning and struggling to complete my first housekeeping task, and of feeling so overwhelmed. But for the first week, I was wrapped with positive affirmations by so many seniors that “it will all turn out okay” and the classic reassuring phrase, “You’ll get used to it.” 

    Enthusiasm flashed in the faces of seniors as they recounted the early days of their junior year, narrating their difficult experiences with newfound humor of the present. They backed up their experience by telling stories of the amazing friends they’d made over the years, of having fun at school clubs and performing at festivals. Every sentence of hardship they said was followed by, “I eventually got over it.” 

    “It,” to them, was now a small reference seniors made as they looked back in retrospect. 

    But to me, It is the overwhelming current of my reality, the pounding in my ears, the expanding hole in my stomach when trying to make sense of this new life. It means feeling unsure in almost every step, and hopelessly clinging onto the words of the students before you that everything will be fine. 

    The discomfort of being a junior needs to be talked about more–of feeling that you are doing everything wrong, of starting fresh and being so terrified about it. Of beginning a new high school journey and not knowing what to do with all the blank pages. The endless support from this community is something I appreciate; however, there needs to be more conversation about feeling lost. Of not glossing over the nuances when navigating junior year, but focusing on them. 

    When we talk about ourselves not in retrospect, but in the present, is when life becomes more real. Instead of discussing every time how adjusting to school life was “eventually solved,” why not expand the conversation to how we are “currently in progress?”

    Life isn’t static–we’re constantly dealing with new problems, subtle moments emerging and revealing themselves every day. 

    To say that “at this moment, you don’t have everything figured out”–that’s what feels more reassuring. More relatable. Of maybe talking about how there are things we still haven’t fully adjusted to, or acknowledging that we are currently struggling with certain things. 

    When we open the door to feeling lost, that’s when we can begin to find our way into the world again.