New Year’s Day is a festivity that we are all accustomed to. Families, friends, associates, and even strangers come together on this day to celebrate the coming of a new time. However, this year’s celebration brought a period of tragedy and disarray in New Orleans, Louisiana when an American terrorist ran over individuals celebrating throughout Bourbon Street and started a shootout. Without even six hours transpiring after this event, another catastrophe struck when a Tesla cyber truck pulled up in front of the entrance of Trump Hotel and exploded.

As a person who is somewhat weary about participating in these large celebratory events, these attacks that occurred on New Year’s Day reinforced my feeling of vulnerability. Nonetheless, I was curious to see if these current events affected how safe people feel when engaging in these large festive gatherings.

George McMaster, a senior of 2025, had similar concerns, saying,, “Since I went to Bourbon Street last year, I am concerned about these dangerous occurrences.”

Even so, McMaster provided some sense of rationality to this growing fear, adding “However, since these attacks are uncommon, I still feel moderately safe when going out for such festive occasions.”

Meanwhile, Alex Tally, another senior of 2025, stated, “I still feel protected when going out.”

Although there are different ranges as to how secure people feel when participating in these gatherings, I believe that it can be agreed that the prevention of these catastrophic attacks will make everyone feel safer when attending these festivities. 

Despite this despairing New Year’s Day, I hope that 2025 can still become a time that we can look back on with positivity.