from the river to the sea - حرية

This is the updating list of colleges where pro-palestine protests are present that have brutalized/arrested/punished their students for protesting the ongoing palestinian genocide.

REMEMBER: DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THESE COLLEGES. PROTESTS ON THESE CAMPUSES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT KEEPING YOUR INTELLIGENCE AND MONEY AWAY FROM THESE ABHORRENT INSTITUTIONS DIMINISHES THEIR POWER. THEIR ONLY POWER COMES FROM THEIR STUDENTS AND THEIR MONEY. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE THEIR PRESTIGE AWAY.

In No Particular Order:

Princeton University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of California - Berkeley

Stanford University

Virginia Tech

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

University of Washington

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Harvard University

Yale University

University of California - Los Angeles

Cornell University

University of Pittsburgh

University of Chicago

University of Southern California

University of California - San Diego

Tufts University

Northeastern University

Stony Brook University

University of Connecticut

University of California - Merced

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

University of Iowa

University of Arizona

Arizona State University

University of California - Irvine

George Washington University

DePaul University

University of Pennsylvania

Pomona College

University of Texas - Dallas

The New School

University of Houston

University of Rochester

University of New Mexico

Duke University

New York University

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Barnards College

University of Vanderbilt

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Columbia University

Portland State University

University of Oregon

California Polytechnic Institute Humboldt

California Polytechnic University - San Luis Obispo

Northern Arizona University

University of Utah

University of Kansas

University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign

Washington University

New Mexico State University

University of Texas - Austin

Tulane University

University of South Florida

University of North Florida

University of Florida

Emory University

University of Georgia

Mercer University

Notre Dame University

Case Western Reserve University

The Ohio State University

Virginian Commonwealth University

University of Virginia

University of Buffalo

State University of New York - Purchase

State University of New York - New Paltz

Brown University

Brandeis University

Dartmouth College

University of New Hampshire

Emerson College

CUNY City College of New York

International List:

University of Amsterdam

University of Alberta

University of Queensland

University of Sydney

University of Melbourne

Australian National University

University of New South Wales

University of Calgary

University of Oxford

December fourth approaches, and with it comes the one year anniversary of my decision to live. For all of my struggles remembering daily events, I still remember exactly where I was when I decided.

I was on the last leg of my run and had just rounded a corner running uphill when I started thinking about how many people were being murdered in genocides with my every step. How they didn't get a chance to decide, and never would. I thought of people who had big dreams, small dreams, people who never got to say goodbye whose bodies wouldn't ever be recovered, who wouldn't be identified because everyone who knew them had already died, who just wanted to see their kid or parent one last time, who left a puzzle unfinished, didn't want to die, had already accepted death, people who realized death was not release, but another measure of control by their oppressors.

And suddenly, my years long debate with suicide seemed so, so ridiculous. Who am I to reject the gift of life. If I don't live for myself, I thought I should at least live for them, for the the ones who don't get a choice. I made my decision, then and there, that I would indeed live for them, if not for myself. And hopefully, I would find reasons of my own along the way, and I have.

I haven't thought about killing myself since that day, and I've discovered that life is so much more beautiful without the filter of a funeral shroud.

This is not to say that I don't have to work for it. I wasn't lying about possibly having undiagnosed depression, OCD, and ADHD. And you know what? I don't wish that I was. I am only who I am now because of who I was before. I still deal with paranoia, night terrors, insomnia, rejection sensitive disorder, and more. But I am here. I am living, breathing, and against all odds, I am happy.

I think what got me through is my sense of justice. My completely and entirely overwhelming care for the world. I know a lot of people tell each other not to watch the news to "protect their peace." But, like my favorite Eugene V. Debs quote emulates, I say that you cannot live anywhere in this world in peace. Poverty is a war. Famine is a war. Prejudice is a war. War is all around you, and, no matter how far down you've shoved it, you know it to be true. War does not need fire and bombs to kill people. For you, perhaps it wields exhaustion, overconsumption, self hatred, beauty standard, the threat of not obeying normalcy. War wears you down whether your head is in front of the gun or shoved deep in the dirt.

But whether you let it weaken your bones or not is your decision. That day, December fourth, I chose to fight. I refused to give in, and I will fight until death if I must. And I'll fight that too. I am only here because thousands of people before me, for thousands of years, had the urge to go on, the urge to stay alive despite it all. and though you may be thinking I have confidence in my ability to end war, I'll tell you right now that I don't.

In the same way I raise my hand even when I am unsure of my answer, I put my effort into researching, speaking out, educating myself, and, most of all, preparing myself to help the best I possibly can. They need doctors willing to go into fights and help civilians. I'm good at biology and enjoy it, so I've decided that I'll try to become a doctor. And all the way, I will not silence myself. I will make use of my privilege for those who do not have any.

My dream is to go to space, see Mars and the moon with my own eyes. But I know that, more than not achieving my dream, leaving behind a world in this state would eat me up inside. I could be on a different planet and still feel every death like it was a bullet to my own heart. In the same way I have decided not to abandon life, I refuse to abandon Earth.