Cougars & Mustangs 

Holy. Shit.

Yes, you read that right. That is how I begin this week’s seemingly insignificant smattering of 400 words, in a public newspaper for all to read.

Holy. Shit.

I just got back from a wonderful evening with friends and sat down to finish up this week’s piece. I stepped on Tumblr for just one little minute to check on something and felt as if I was suddenly blasted out through my apartment window with the force of eight metric tonnes. When I saw what I saw reverberating across the continent and beyond, in this beautiful and scary digital age, I decided, “Screw it,” and completely scrapped my progress.

If standard temporal laws are to be believed, when this column is published it will be a day or so after all the chaos has subsided. But I have a feeling that it extends far, far, farther than all of that.

I don’t know how I didn’t hear about all of this. I don’t know how, when I was visiting friends in a college student-filled apartment complex, my ears weren’t met with screams of anger and glee from every which direction.

Holy. Shit.

I don’t even know what to SAY to you. You did it. You proved to me and to so many others that the younger generations are far more involved in politics than one would think. You proved to me that there is still fiery blood breaking the sound barrier through the veins of the American people.

You’ve whispered to me, with tongue of burning steel, that revolution is coming.

I’m scared. I’m also, even more so, incredibly proud.

The next 24 hours and beyond from this column’s writing are going to be some of the most turbulent I may ever have experienced. Civil rights shall emit enormous cries, and whether they shall be of agony or triumph, or even some combination of the two, remains to be seen.

So remember all of this. Think on it. I won’t spell it out for you this time. Screw the latest concert you might have a passing interest in—this is the life you’re building yourselves, and as the Cougars and Mustangs representative, let me just say one thing: Think on it. Don’t let it pass you by. Don’t let it rule you. This is going to be, and possibly has been, one HELL of a ride.

Intern Chris White-Sanborn compiled this week’s Cougars & Mustangs. Send your collegiate news to [email protected].