Letter to the Editor: An end to Mirror Lake is an end of traditions

Kathryn Yatsko
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 00:18:05 +0000
Letters to Editor, Opinion, Afroduck, carmen ohio, Columbus, Light up the Lake, mirror lake, off the lake, ohio state, ohio state traditions

Since the Mirror Lake jump started, I am the fifth member of my family to attend Ohio State. Before that, both of my parents attended OSU, which is where they met. I grew up in a house where I knew “Carmen Ohio” before the national anthem. All this being said, traditions are something that mean a lot to me and my family at OSU. No one in my family cares much about the jump, but we do care about a lot of other traditions that could end because of Mirror Lake closing, such as Off the Lake productions and Ohio Staters’ annual Light Up the Lake. ?The administration says they are renovating it, but as someone who knows OSU pretty well, I have a hard time believing they will really preserve the area as well as they claim. There are things people count on not to change, and Mirror Lake should be one of them. There are ways to make the area more environmentally sustainable without completely destroying what we know to be Mirror Lake. And, some additional important input from my mother: “Where will Afroduck go?”

I have a picture taken of myself at age 2 and a picture mirroring the image at age 17, when I decided to attend OSU. I plan on graduating from this institution in 2019, and had planned on recreating this photo in a cap and gown. But now, that tradition, as well as many more, will end.

Kathryn Yatsko.4
Second-year in mechanical engineering