Recently there have been shameful insults to students at Exeter. They have been called racist names by people in passing pickup up trucks and an SUV. These incidents are under investigation and it is a huge issue, but people can learn from this experience.
Exeter is such a small and protected town yet ugly things happen even in this location. No matter where you are things will happen and that is unfortunate but it is the situation in the world today and it is occasionally unavoidable in certain situations.
This teaches all of us that the whole world outside of Exeter is not all like it usually is here. Not everyone is always nice and normal and completely accepting. There are some people in the world today who do not accept others and who are disrespectful and will say things like rude comments to make themselves feel better.
It is a very regretful experience that these relatively few students had. But lessons can be drawn from it, such as the fact that not everyone is loving and friendly like people in this small town. When we all move on in life and go on to bigger things these hurtful words can strengthen us and allow us to feel more comfortable in other situations. When we leave this town and go into the outside world we should have learned valuable things here that can be used in our everyday lives. Preparing us to go on to other things is something that Exeter Summer School does for us students. Getting out of our comfort zone is an unexpected result of our time here and I think that this incident ended up showing us all something that we can take as a positive and that most negative experiences, no matter how graphic, can have some sort of positive come out of them.