When to listen to Bill O'Reilly

While I was flying over the vast Atlantic Ocean to come to Columbia for NSOP, I realized the enormity of the trip that I was undertaking. Not only was I a person of fairly small stature moving to a continent I had never visited before, I was also the first person in my family to move out of her parent’s home for college. This was a step my parents were not very willing to let me take—not because they thought that I would turn into a complete bacchanalian degenerate, but rather because they were afraid I would not be able to look after myself and would “starve” without my mother’s amazing Turkish-Kurdish food.

Now that I am a sophomore and no longer have a meal plan, I’m beginning to share my parents’ fear. However, when I embarked on my college search, my main concerns were whether Columbia would be the right “fit” and whether I would be happy here for four years. I knew that it was perfect for what I wanted to study, but was it also perfect for me?  
Since it was too expensive to visit campus, I had to find the answer by using the best invention since the ballpoint pen: Youtube. There, I tried to find videos of Columbia’s campus. I did find a few, but something else turned out to be even more valuable. It was a clip of “The O’Reilly Factor,” in which Bill O’Reilly berates Columbia University for the disturbances a few students had caused during the Minutemen speech. Even though I do not necessarily agree with what happened during the protest, when he said that “Columbia University is a disgrace” and a “place of indoctrination,” I could not have been happier. For if there is one infallible rule in this world, it is that if Bill O’Reilly says something, the complete opposite must be true. I knew I had to apply early decision to Columbia.

Although I do not tend to make important life decisions by listening to what Bill O’Reilly belches on his show, I am glad I did that time. Columbia truly is the opposite of what Bill O’Reilly said it was. If I have noticed anything, it is the University’s dedication to be a safe haven for free speech, not merely for white supremacists, but for everyone, regardless of their culture or other aspects of their identity. Last year, for example, I went to talks given by speakers as diverse as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Avi Shlaim and Ann Coulter. Even David Horowitz, who accused Columbia of being opposed to free speech, was given an opportunity to come and expound his views.

The students at Columbia are critical and are not afraid to give their own opinion, but this does not mean that they are close-minded. They wouldn’t be at Columbia if they were. Because if they were, the countless people here who have different world views and experiences would frustrate them to no end.

Indeed, I still meet people from different backgrounds and cultures every day, and it is an incredibly enriching experience. It does seem trite to say this but that is only because we have so much diversity here that we almost take it for granted. I especially realized this during the summer when I was showing the University of Amsterdam to a good friend of mine, who was visiting me from Columbia. The students at the campus were all incredibly white and preppy, and I literally did not see a single person of color at the campus. There is no Orisha, Bhangra or Lion Dance at the University of Amsterdam. At Columbia, I am very grateful to be able to attend diverse cultural shows and would not want to miss all the other events that are organized by the other amazing cultural clubs and organizations at Columbia.

There are of course moments that make me wish I had stayed in the Netherlands. During Eid this year, I did indeed wish that I could be at my grandparents’ house eating all sorts of sweets instead of being separated from them by an ocean and a seven-hour flight. But because I attend Columbia, where I can study with the friendliest and most interesting students and with the best professors on the most beautiful campus in the world, I was able to endure the momentary nostalgia. I can happily make a visit to Morton Williams and pay an arm and a leg to buy candy for Eid, as long as I can see the gates of Columbia across the street and know that I belong there.

And besides, I have history on my side. If I have learned anything from growing up in the Netherlands, it is that being small does not dissuade us from taking on challenges and accomplishing the unexpected. Over the summer, we proved this to the world when the Dutch cricket team (yes, there is one) defeated the British in the first match of the Twenty20 World Championships. Even though our team was completely destroyed by Pakistan in the next match, our participation in the Championships still showed that people from the Netherlands are not afraid to embark on unfamiliar territory and surprise the people around them. Thus, hopefully, neither am I. 

The author is a Columbia College sophomore.