During my time as a student, I have seen how our society has begun to coddle students and enable them to be self-absorbed, narcissistic people who believe that anytime someone disagrees with them, they are being discriminated against or victimized.

The Oklahoma Wesleyan University president, Dr. Everett Piper, recently wrote a column on this very topic after one student complained about feeling victimized by a sermon on the topic of love.

According to Piper’s column, the student told the president that he was offended because the speaker made him and his peers feel bad for not showing love and, ultimately, making them uncomfortable.

Piper wrote, “Any time [the students’] feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them ‘feel bad’ about themselves, is a ‘hater,’ a ‘bigot,’ an ‘oppressor,’ and a ‘victimizer.’”

Today’s college administrators and senior leadership teams tend to be afraid to say anything of meaning or value for fear of offending students. We as a society are coddling students and allowing them to complain about events in life that are simply just a part of life. For example, administrators are granting minor claims of subjective offense, such as the nature of a religious sermon, the same weight as more grotesque instances of hate, such as the swastika made of feces that appeared in a bathroom at the University of Missouri.

Quite frankly, it is sickening to see students gripe about small problems that should not be a problem. I do not want to call out any specific groups that have spoken up around campus or around the nation because in a matter of seconds, I expect to be berated by these groups for being insensitive or not seeing the argument how they see it.

I completely support fighting to resolve a true problem and going through the necessary avenues to find a resolution. But I do not support anyone who fights for something just because they feel bad, believe they have been discriminated against or simply just to gain attention for themselves.

Sometimes, adversity in life does truly warrant peaceful protest in a public manner. Other times, and more often, it does not require a public peaceful protest, but rather a meeting with individuals that will help make a change.

And sometimes, your personal discomfort with a situation does not warrant the outrage you express. That outrage is just life and it is something to which you must become accustomed. You could even learn from these experiences and grow as a student.