I was raised to be tough, and to always ask questions. My parents infused my childhood with showing me how to stick out every bad or unfortunate situation that happened to me. This included sticking up for who I am, what I believe in, and making sure no one thought I was something I wasn’t.

I am a woman. And I am a very blond one at that. I lived in the country all of my life, with Wal-Mart being the biggest thing my hometown has ever had, and still has.

I am also a student on a good deal of financial aide, and I have come to terms with the fact that I am not a student at Miami University who is blessed with extreme wealth.

Obviously, a lot of students can relate to this as well.

Now that you know a little about who I am, the following might make more sense and help explain why I chose to write a previous column on my experience of getting robbed, and my effort to explain to students what I learned while handling that situation.

My iPhone getting stolen, as I talked about in my last column, was a huge deal to me, because I can’t afford to have it stolen, just like many other students can’t. It was also the first time I had ever been robbed in my life. It was a huge, inevitable experience for me that the “Oxford Bubble,” as I also talked about, didn’t help me prepare for.

Again, as I had expressed, this bubble in some cases doesn’t accurately depict what the outside world is like when it comes to safety. Letting your guard down can become an easy thing to do here, even while walking on High Street alone at 3 a.m.

This being said, my mother, who probably could have used that money to do more meaningful things with it, bought me this phone for my birthday. Out of the love of her heart. Not because I am a pretentious person who moaned about not having the latest technology. It hurt to know I had carelessly let the easy life of Oxford and living in such a safe place make me careless outside of it with such a cherished gift, and I am sure many can relate to having something taken from them that a loved one had bought them.

So this is why I wanted to pass on some information from the wonderful people at Apple and Verizon on to other students who may not grasp the insurance policies of both places, and can ultimately be informed and know what to do if in fact this situation does happen to them inside Oxford and out.

I have experienced a lot of amazing life lessons, but you know what, getting a phone stolen is a negative experience that can be prevented. So why does that make my experience lesser than other ones in the “real world?” When passing on this information is obviously something we all can understand, because who doesn’t have a cell phone at Miami?

No matter what kind of cell phone it is, it’s a tough situation to have it stolen. Whether it was a phone, tips you worked for all night waitressing, or a wallet, when you are not safely prepared to handle your belongings, it is undoubtedly an experience that you can learn from.

I stick by my previous piece, and will also still assert for the most part that students here really are careless about technology, their belongings and ultimately their safety as a whole, including myself until that weekend in Cleveland.

Living in such a safe college town is amazing.

I will never deny that, and who could? But it is hard for me to sit back and not look around me and wonder: how do some parts of Oxford really prepare me for the “real world?”

I am more than thankful for the education that I would go no where else for, the professors that have impacted me, and the best friends I have made, but the “Oxford Bubble” is permanent, and has negatives just as much as positives.

If people aren’t willing to accept both, then your own biases about your love for a place may have clouded your vision. The only way to truly be informed about anything is to accept that everything has an equal balance of bad and good.

Oxford has equal parts bad and good, and people of all walks of life at Miami should understand that.