The conflict with Iran is a heavy subject for Americans everywhere, but especially for students here at Hamilton. Lasting a month at this point, tensions continue to rise as well as curiosity about what this means for Gen Z. Luckily, Hami students are doing their best to stay informed.
“I usually see things on TikTok when news articles come up,” says Humanities senior Zoey Kahan. “If something looks false, I do further research on it.”
AMPA sophomore Rane D’angora also uses social media to stay up to date. “I mostly hear [about] it through social media, my parents, or [my] friends. I don’t really watch the news that much just because I feel like it has sort of an inaccurate depiction of what’s actually happening,” he observes. “They usually blow things out of proportion.”
Refusing to turn a blind eye, students continue to consider the effect the war may have on them in the long run. Camila Garcia Mendez, a senior in Humanities, says that the war could be disadvantageous to her because of its toll on her education.
She worries it may change her university experience. “I’m afraid because I want to be successful in life, and if I can’t attend college because of everything going on, then there’s my future down the drain,” Camila expresses.
On another note, Rane points out the psychological effect of constantly hearing about the war. “It’s not really affecting me directly but more like emotionally. It’s just kind of stressful, just even the
idea that my family and myself could be in danger, like the place that I live could be under attack is kind of threatening,” he voices. “When I heard on Monday that they said there were going to be bombs or drone attacks, that was when I started getting a little bit worried.”
While this war does affect American citizens, Zoey gives voice to those in the Middle East regions. “It’s affecting a lot of people in the world negatively, and even though it’s not affecting me personally, it’s a really big issue that needs to be stopped,” she proclaims.
As of now, the war seems to be far from over, seeing how just hours ago Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed their intelligence officer, Majid Khademi, was killed in an Israel-US attack. This conflict continues to linger on students’ minds.
“I feel like really any war is bad war,” Rane adds. “Violence is never really the solution.”
