As some of you may know, I'm a student at the University of Pittsburgh. So if you know that, you now must know about the 70, and quite possibly growing, bomb threats that have been on campus. It has escalated to reports in the national news, something I wouldn't have Pitt to do unless it was related to athletics or massive academic achievement. Unfortunately, the bad will always outweigh the good.

And with these constant threats, my life has become a whirlwind of utter stress. As an English Lit major, I am expected to do my fair share of writing and research, usually moreso than the average student. With five Lit classes this semester, just multiply everything by that number and you get the utter chaos of just a basic academic week.

Now with my classes being constantly disrupted, relocated, and some even moved online, my workload has nearly doubled the normal amount for the semester. Since we cannot be in class to participate and show that we have done the work, my fellow classmates and I have been forced to lengthen our papers and do multiple Blackboard and Class Blog posts in order to get anything done.

Right now I have abandoned any segment of my social life and plunged head first into my work. When the library is not evacuated, I spend countless hours with multiple windows up. Just this Tuesday I was working on three papers at once, writing a blog, and completing a discussion board post. And once my afternoon classes were done, I headed straight home to read criticism after criticism, and finish reading The Bluest Eye and The Remains of the Day. My workload has gone into over time and frankly, I'm exhausted.

The only thing I can say about these threats is that it has somehow brought the Pitt community closer together. I'm spending time sitting on benches, talking with unknown students about what is going on, asking about what classes were disrupted or if they had to evacuate their dorm at 4am. Despite the annoyance of the situation, people are still keeping their head up and pushing on. I even had the delight to have my suggestion of holding my Children's Lit class in the Carnegie Library put into use. And upon the moment our class walked into the Children's Section, a wonderful librarian asked us if we needed anything for our class. She simply reached out to help us in any way.

It is just lovely to know that despite the bad, a lot of good can happen through it.

Hail to Pitt.