After the tragic loss of fellow student Victoria Cheng, I feel now more than ever is a time to focus on the ideals of a sustainable society: working as a group to support each other. Though I did not personally know Victoria, I am friends with many who were close to her. I wish I had the chance to get to know the kind, fun loving girl that she was. In the face of tragedy, now is the time to form a community in order to remember and celebrate Victoria’s life.

This week my green lifestyle challenge was a little more abstract, but I feel appropriate.

Green Lifestyle Change #5: To embody the sustainable mindset of community.

In our busy lives, it is easy to be caught up in the craziness of school work, extracurriculars, and our daily routines. We tend to focus on ourselves, the individual, rather than all around us. From this week on, I am accepting this challenge of reaching out to others. One thing that you can do today to join me in this new lifestyle change is to participate in the Do Anything Nice (D.A.N.) random act of kindness for this week: the bucket list. Reach out to a friend or form a new friendship by doing something today that you have always wanted to do and by sharing this experience with others. Sing randomly in a public place, hug every person you see, start a random dance party with a group of strangers. This event is about celebrating life and all of the people in it in order to build community and stress that in some way we are all connected.

D.A.N. will also be setting up a memorial board for Victoria next week in order to help share with the entire community who she was.

It is unfortunate that sometimes it takes a tragedy like this to really feel close to one another and lean on others for support. However, I feel if we carry these community-building ideals with us from now on, the Ithaca College community can only grow stronger.

So go celebrate your life, and make new connections with the rest of the world.