Despite the fact that the reports of a gunman on Yale University’s campus was a likely hoax, it still was a very stressful experience for students.

Senior Harry Graver shares his observations on the day’s events, which he sees as a reminder of the reality of evil.

….While we are profoundly blessed to have escaped an actual shooter, that fact does not make those preceding moments any less real. That fear — that involuntary ignorance and impotence in the face of some unknown danger — will linger for a long time. We should not forget this feeling. It should serve as an emotional echo, much as the voice of Yale Police announcing a “gunman” on campus will reverberate for those restricted to their dormitories earlier today.

In a cruel irony, a day that trapped Yale within her gates is one that has also reminded us how fundamentally fragile those apparent barriers actually are. There is no bubble, no Ivory Tower, no community of any sort immune from the resolute, ever-marching ubiquity of evil. On the afternoon of the release of the Newtown Report, in a climate where gun violence has become perilously close to a new normal, our campus today grazed the outline of a part of the human condition equally fixed and monstrous — a portion that fate has not been so kind as to spare elsewhere.

As the dust settles around Old Campus and the emergency vehicles drive off, it is up to Yale students to figure out how we treat the events of today. In the coming days, against the backdrop of Thanksgiving — and after a glimpse into what could have been — we can take a deep breath, look a little more lovingly at our family either at home or at Yale and take better note of what we have. However, we also ought to find the obligation latent within this moment of providential exemption. As a community, we ought to discover and exhaustively examine the perspective afforded to us by coming to the brink of tragedy without experiencing its human cost.

This should be a time of both encouraging and frightening reflection, peering honestly into the spectrum of human nature that was on display today.

In one regard, we saw true bravery and selflessness in the first responders, unflinchingly plunging into an unknown scenario — unknown except for its resemblance to the all-too-recent imagery of Newtown, Boston and Virginia Tech. We should force ourselves to answer honestly: Could I have done what they did?

In another capacity, we experienced our intimate proximity to evil. Looking back on the fears of today, perhaps we too might look to whatever wickedness is fixed in our own hearts, granted to a far lesser degree.

We as a campus have been remarkably fortunate today. May we make ourselves better for it, as far too many have recently been robbed of that chance.