Opinion

4 The Daily Aztec Opinion

Don’t take family for granted in new chapter of adulthood

Nov. 3 - 9, 2021 EDITOR: Aaliyah Alexander • opinion@thedailyaztec.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF Catlan Nguyen

MANAGING EDITOR Trinity Bland

By Lindsey Anderson CONTRIBUTOR

Leaving home for the first time means leaving everything about childhood behind.

In jumping into this new chapter, we bid a sweet farewell to all that’s familiar to us: our hometown, our long-time friends and our families.

For many, this is the most appealing part of college. By the time we turn 18, we could not be more ready to go — chomping at the bit to pursue a life of independence in a city we can learn to call our own.

Our newfound independence comes with the freedom to explore new relationships, seeking out new friends who match our current chapter (chosen as our people for reasons not tied to kindergarten).

The clean slate that accompanies us into college allows us to pursue connections with people who resonate with us or who align with our lifestyle, thus building an army of individuals who fulfill many different pieces of our being.

It is these people that are with us every single day — growing with us and supporting us — as we take on the college woes. With mere exposure and transformative shared experiences, these friends become our family almost overnight.

Suddenly, going home is not important — all our friends are here. This new place has become our home, these people are now our family and this independence is now our life.

We are so grown up and experienced that all of sudden our families are not a priority.

We’ve decided that we don’t need our parents anymore; we can successfully live on our own. We don’t need familial support; we have our friends. We don’t need the presence of older people in our lives; we’re young and we’re cool. Right? Wrong. As we progress through our time in college, disregarding family is a huge mistake.

Sure, we’ve developed a strong new sense of identity and built a village of people here with us, but that doesn’t mean we no longer have room for the home team who raised us.

The appeal of establishing family in friends is understandable.

These friends won’t punish us for coming home late or for drinking on a weekday. They won’t hinder our newfound freedom or question our motives; they’ll simply join us for the ride.

We can tell these friends anything without judgement or unwanted advice and, not to mention, they tend to be more fun to be around as their interests align with ours.

If anything, establishing these strong familial bonds with close college friends should be encouraged because we need this sense of support when we

Family can serve as a support system during adulthood as you try figuring things out, especially while in college.

become physically distant from family.

But that doesn’t mean these friendships are a replacement for our familial relationships.

Honestly, we should be striving to grow our families, not shrink them.

As simple an idea this may be, so many students develop complete disregard for their families when they move away from home.

We turn 18 and suddenly, we’re too cool for mom and dad.

But believe it or not, our

parents did not send us off to school only for us to move on from them. They did not raise us to outgrow them, nor did they raise us to become “too cool” for their time.

Not to mention, our parents become cooler the older we get.

So, for the students who haven’t reached out to their families: you may feel like a big college hot-shot now, but before you know it you’ll be begging to go back home.

What you’ll come to realize is that you miss being a kid again

Courtesy of Lindsey Anderson

and, sometimes, a break from adulthood is just the refresh you needed.

So, please don’t cut those ties. Embrace the love your parents provide and allow yourself to be their child again, if only for a weekend.

At the very least, take a step off your high horse and please, just call your mom.

Lindsey Anderson is a senior studying rhetoric and writing.

NEWS EDITOR Katelynn Robinson

OPINION EDITOR Aaliyah Alexander

MUNDO AZTECA EDITOR Noé Sandoval

ASST. MUNDO AZTECA EDITOR Karina Bazarte

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Ryan Hardison

ASST. ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Cristina Lombardo

SPORTS EDITOR Jason Freund

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Andrew Finley

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Amanda Orozco

PHOTO EDITOR Noelani Sapla

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Mackenzie Stafford

ASST. MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Jayne Yutig

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Hemen Mesfin

STAFF WRITERS Adam Correa Eugenie Budnik Jayden Hanzy Austin Tarke Grace Brady Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo

SENIOR STAFF WRITERS Lucelis Martinez Sara Rott

CONTRIBUTORS Lindsey Anderson Sumaia Wegner Samantha Muscio Maritza Camacho ________________________________

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Brian Arnold

________________________________

GRAPHIC DESIGN SPECIALIST Luis Valenzuela

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Nov. 3 - 9, 2021 EDITOR: Aaliyah Alexander • opinion@thedailyaztec.com

Opinion

The Daily Aztec

Fellow students: remember to take safety precautions living on campus

5

By Lucelis Martinez SENIOR STAFF WRITER

One of my favorite things about going to San Diego State is the fact we have so much access to the outside world.

Many organizations on campus have fun events week after week, whether that be online due to the COVID-19 pandemic or in person for students to have fun and get to know each other. We also have the ability to plan a trip by taking the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System like I did my freshman year when I took the trolley to Old Town and visited the haunted Whaley House for the first time.

However, being a public campus comes with its own set of challenges. While I don’t mean to suggest we should be more afraid of people at SDSU than anywhere else, I do aim to remind us that we live within a community of thousands of students, faculty and San Diego residents, and we should always be aware of who we interact with on campus.

According to usnews.com, SDSU is 560 acres, fitting a community of around 31,000 undergraduate students in 2020 alone. Within that wide range of people, there are bound to be many personalities. Mix that with the pressures of juggling college, family, mental health, finances and many other things life brings, it is easy to see how we can struggle with the day-today while being on campus sometimes.

I lived on campus during my first month at SDSU and, to say the least, I was happy to leave. In my short time in the dorms,

It never hurts to be safe by carrying items such as pepper spray around on campus.

I enjoyed the company of many people while making friends I still have three years later. My only complaint was having to deal with random people showing up drunk to my dorm. The easy access to drugs and the pressure from peers to use them, coupled with the experience of being manipulated by someone who threatened to hurt themselves because I didn’t speak to them late one night (during my first week at State, not to mention), pushed me to make my decision to leave on-campus housing.

Encountering intoxicated people on campus doesn’t even account for the other dangers we face like walking around campus at night, especially in areas that are not well-lit.

Graphic by Aaliyah Alexander

I’m not complaining about the realities of co-existing with others, and I acknowledge that life is hard and we all have our battles, but my goal is help diminish some of the everyday safety risks while living on such a public campus.

SDSU has created many options for students to consider when trying to keep themselves safe.

Some of the options include: self defense classes, emergency alert systems, multiple ways to report crimes, peer health education and our own police force with two stations on campus amongst other options.

If you’ve seen tall towers labeled “EMERGENCY” on campus, you’ll note

they include a “blue light” phone which provides immediate access to SDSU Police Dispatch by pushing a button.

I’ve purchased a small alarm and placed it on my keychain to pull in case of emergencies and almost always keep both pepper gel and spray on me. There are times I will not be allowed either item as a student, and I find it problematic.

According to the 2021 Campus Safety Plan, violent crimes are defined as willful homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. There have been 16 on-campus violent crimes this semester.

The 2020 Annual Security Report, which is prepared by the Campus Clery Director in cooperation with several entities on campus including the SDSU Police Department, the Residential Education Office, and Counseling and Psychological Resources, amongst others includes statistics about crime on campus for the three most recent calendar years.

This report shows that SDSU had at least 99 on campus burglaries between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2019.

Again, while I don’t mean to scare any student, I do want to encourage us to be aware of the threats we face while on campus and to be aware of what we can do about them. Stay aware and stay safe Aztecs.

Lucelis Martinez is a junior studying journalism. Follow her on Twitter @ Lucelispm.

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