Editorial:
Unity eases grieving process

The blow hits hard enough with one tragic loss. But the impact of four deaths under the span of two months leaves the campus community in an almost-paralyzing state of sorrow. Too many Rider students have lost a close friend in a vehicular accident this semester.While this alone is cause for unmitigated grief, it’s even harder to acknowledge the harsh reality of four lives ending when their vast potential barely began to be discovered, let alone fully realized.

We’re closer to death than any college-aged individuals ever ought to find themselves. At this stage in our lives, we’re not supposed to brace ourselves for what it feels like when we’re laughing with a friend one day, only to be mourning his or her loss days later. These are the sort of life lessons that no one should ever have to learn at college.

Many of us didn’t know what it was like to cope with losing someone so young until our college years and were thrown blindly into a state of abject sadness because of the shock. Others have dealt with the grieving process before when they’ve lost a friend at an even younger age; they know that it never gets easier to overcome the death of a peer, especially when that person is a sibling, a best friend, a leader or maybe just someone who would always hold the door for anyone who seemed too encumbered with text books.

No one goes through college without feeling a little isolated or alone at some point, so it seems as though we value every one of our friends and close acquaintances a little more than we did when we were in high school. Because we entrust so much of ourselves to other people and rely on them to always be there as a friend, it’s so much harder to acknowledge the small chance that we may have to part ways sooner than we wish.

Every person in our lives plays a different kind of role: someone whose interests are perfectly in tune with yours, someone who seems to read your mind, someone with whom you always try to schedule at least one class a semester, someone whom you’ve already claimed as your future apartment roommate once you both have graduated college. To lose any one of these people is to lose a part of ourselves because we can’t believe that we’ll ever find anyone else who will understand that kind of a bond.

Rationally, we all know death is a part of life. But rational thought does little to assuage the pain that comes with any loss, be it that of a friend, a parent, a distant relative or a casual acquaintance. This is when being a part of the close-knit college community is beneficial, as we are able to band together with our other friends who are hurting just as much and who understand the unique heartbreak of losing a college companion. We’re so physically close to each other that we never have to be alone in the aftermath of such tragedy. Additionally, the University provides grief counselors to anyone who wishes to speak to someone who’s either trained to help or is a little more removed from the emotional trauma.

The loss of a young friend is truly one of the most awful experiences one will ever know. It’s a devastation that is truly incomparable in its scope. It’s hard to put aside one’s own grief to comfort the family and our own friends, though we sometimes feel selfish for having such a hard time doing so. But if there is any silver lining to be found, it is that losses of such magnitude often bring mourning friends closer together and create deeper bonds among those who share in their grief.