Last night, I walked home from campus. It was around midnight; I was tired and wanted to get home as quickly as possible. My house is a brisk, well-lit 10-minute walk from campus and I talked on my cell phone the whole way. It was a cool, crisp night and I saw nothing wrong with trekking home and clearing my head after a long, tedious day.

But instead of a warm welcome home, I was greeted with, “Where have you been? We were worried.” When I explained to my roommates that I had walked home, I was chastised by my roommates for walking alone so late at night and not calling one of them for a ride home.

Maybe I shouldn’t have walked home. I should have called for a ride, but I didn’t feel the need to — the thought barely crossed my mind.

Lately, a general feeling of paranoia and insecurity has spread over this campus. This was mainly caused by two recent assaults, one sexual, on or near the ISU campus. These ill-timed attacks — both occurred during the YWCA’s Week Without Violence — have reminded us we are not completely safe in Ames and are kidding ourselves if we think we are.

While I think the obsession is a little extreme, (as of yesterday, Walgreens was sold out of pepper spray) it is not unfounded. Bad things happen. The world can be scary, but it shouldn’t be intimidating. I could not have learned that lesson any better than on the street corners of Alicante, Spain.

In Alicante, we walked everywhere. There were no rides to call, no cell phones on which to dial 911 and cops were as scarce as snowflakes. Every night I went out, I found myself making the 30-minute walk home. Alone. In a strange city. In the dark.

The first twenty minutes were fine. It was on a well-lit main street with lots of cars driving by. It was the last ten minutes that were the worst. It was dark and no one was around. Every little sound made my heart skip two beats, and by the time I arrived at my doorstep, I was practically panting. As I unlocked my door and closed it behind me, I would often sink onto the floor in relief.

We were warned not to carry purses and practice the buddy system. It was then I learned to carry everything I needed (keys, identification, money, emergency phone numbers) in my bra. Don’t laugh — it works!

I remember on one specific morning I was walking to the train station at 5:30 a.m. to catch a train for a weekend trip, which was a good 40-minute hike. It was very dark, and remnants of the night before were awfully evident. An extremely drunk man staggered past me and into the streets. I put my head down and kept walking as he mumbled and slurred past me. Four teenagers on the other side of the street passed loudly. “Keep going,” I told myself.

Halfway into the voyage, while crossing an intersection, a man in a blue car stopped abruptly in front of me and signaled for me to come to his window. I ignored him, but at the next intersection he repeated the same thing, now asking for directions in Spanish. “D‚jame en paz,” [Leave me alone] I said, and the more I disregarded him, the more persistent he got. By the time I got to the train station, I was practically running and ignoring traffic lights.

I had never been so relieved to see a train station in my life. Who knows, maybe he really was lost and wanted directions. Maybe he wanted something else. What it was, I will never know.

So what can be learned from all this? I know I learned how to be cautious, watch out for myself and not be na‹ve about what could happen. Dangers were present, but I did not let instances like this have a negative effect on my experiences abroad. No one deserves to be a victim of violence — there are things one can do to ward off attacks, such as carrying a cell phone, not wearing headphones and not walking alone under the influence of drugs or alcohol (www.dps.iastate.edu/safetytips1.htm).

I also realize that Iowa State is a relatively safe place. According to the DPS safety report, “Safety and You,” there were no murders reported between 1998 and 2000, and only 11 total cases of aggravated assault were reported in 2000 from the entire community. This is small compared to how many people there are at Iowa State and in Ames.

While it is important to be cautious and informed, it is not necessary to let fear dictate how you live. Until I feel unsafe enough not to, I will continue walking home in the dark.