There’s not much more I can say about this. I can’t say that I knew Vanessa well but we were in the same year at BU, former WordStream, and eventual NYC transplants. When I read the news yesterday, I was left with an odd sense of profound sadness. The details have yet to emerge but this is nothing short of a tragedy. I’ve always understood that the world was unfair, that good and bad things can happen outside of our realm of control.
Yet I always believed that we should still be good to one another, and especially to strangers, no matter what circumstance. I want to believe that humans are inherently good but I’m not sure if I can say that honestly anymore. Even after coming to NYC, I’ve been able to surround myself in the same kind of insular, presumably safe neighborhood that I’m all too familiar with but what does that even mean anymore? I don’t know what to believe.
I’m looking for that bright eyed naive boy who left New England last summer in pursuit of adventure, the big city, and everything inbetween. He just seems too vulnerable to have survived.