This week as a Tar Heel

and I hope you saw the moon

Hi all,

It’s been a week.

Most people probably know by now that there was an active shooter event at UNC on Monday, which resulted in the tragic death of a UNC faculty member, Zijie Yan. I was, gratefully, not on campus that day.

While I’m sure the headline was hard to miss, what you’ll only know if you were paying closer attention is that our campus went into a nearly 4-hour petrifying lockdown, during which time we received regular alerts from the school telling us to continue to shelter in place because the threat was still at large. Students hid in closets and classrooms. On what was the first day of school for the local public schools, those students, too, were not allowed to leave the building. Kindergarteners were not dismissed until hours after their scheduled dismissal time. Because we were desperate for more information, people clung to rumors and spread misinformation like wildfire. Every person associated with UNC sent the text that sends a shiver down your back to send: “Are you safe?”

We sent these texts for hours.

That’s why the brilliant Tuesday cover of the UNC student newspaper had such an impact. It really tells you what it felt like; it makes you feel it, too.

LOCAL NEWS

• UNC closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, we returned to campus. The associate dean of our doctoral program brought bagels and coffee so we could all be in community early in the morning, before the chaos of the day. It was needed. This semester, I am the teaching assistant for a seminar for incoming doctoral students, so I was in the classroom yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t sure how it would feel to be in the classroom, but it felt okay. We’ll rebuild a sense of security together.

• We’re heading to Philly for the long weekend as an end-of-summer treat! I really need to get packing, so please excuse any typos in this newsletter as I will not be spending time proofreading…

• I hope you all saw the moon this week! It was too rainy for us to see the full moon on Wednesday, but the Thursday moon was, quite literally, breathtaking.

  

  via hopehealingarts

• Something I enjoyed this week:

  

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

• I read the Irish novella, Foster, on Sunday. Yesterday, we watched the film adaptation, The Quiet Girl. I thought both were simply beautiful. They gently ripped my heart out, just the way I prefer for my heart to be ripped out.

BIRTH NOTICES

• In a matter of 24 hours, many trees lining the freeway between my home and my dance studio in Raleigh took on a golden-yellow hue. I also noticed a cool breeze while walking on campus yesterday. The end of summer has arrived.

  

IN MEMORIAM

• So long and good riddance to the sweatiest August I’ve ever experienced.

COMICS

An apt one by

Cartoons by Hilary

Another from @lord_birthday on Instagram:

And I leave you with this Tweet.

Neal and I have been repeating this to each other for weeks

Did I already share that Tweet? I’ve been thinking about it for weeks.

Stay safe out there.

Much love,

Claire