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Showing posts from August, 2013

Confessions of a 28-Year-Old 22-Year-Old

                Lately, I find myself spending an awful lot of my free time on BuzzFeed. Sure, they love stealing articles, pictures, and ideas from smaller corners of the Internet and putting them in lists that maximize instant gratification, but sometimes simplicity is what you need after a long day of work. More importantly, sometimes the simplest, silliest things can change the way you view your life. Take, for example, the series of articles comparing actions and feelings at various ages (titled something like “____ In Your Early 20’s Versus ___ In Your Late 20’s”). Essentially the point of all of these articles is that your first few years of post-college life are supposed to be full of fun, insecurity, terrible choices, crackling energy, and no solid consequences. As you grow throughout the decade (and throughout the rest of your life), maturity sets in, usually coupled with a slower, less manic vivacious. I think in general, this is a pretty standard view of one's 20

A Letter to the Yale Administration

To Stephanie Spangler, M.D., Deputy Provost for Health Affairs and Academic Integrity,                My name is Tara Tyrrell. I was a member of Saybrook College, class of 2012. A first-generation Yalie, I grew up in a small mountain town in Tennessee, the only child of a small-business family. When I matriculated, the promise that Yale made to me that I would be given a lifetime of opportunities, a wealth of knowledge, and the equal honor and respect afforded to every student (regardless of my background, gender, race, or religion), felt like one I could count on. However, the report that the University released this week qualifying rape as “nonconsensual sex” and making it clear that the usual punishment for such an offense is a verbal slap on the wrist has made it quite clear to me that my faith in that promise was very foolish, indeed.                 One clear night, during the winter of my sophomore year, I was sexually assaulted just steps away from my dorm room. Anothe