“We Just Can’t Have You Here” | WEEKEND:
I see that Yale is a fundamentally unhealthy place in one important
way. The problem is, everyone is “okay.” I have known friends who have
suffered the deaths of siblings, who have been victims of sexual assault
or who have fought life-threatening illness, all while navigating their
sexuality, while taking five-and-a-half credits, while chairing more
organizations and running to more meetings than they can keep track of. I
have known friends to do all of this and still profess, at every
opportunity, to be “okay,” “fine,” “great.”
To say something else, to be — in our own minds and in the minds of
others — something else, is for some reason not acceptable at Yale. None
of us are completely okay. But the pressure to conform to being
perfectly functional and happy is a burden that we should neither want
nor bear.