Once, while visiting Egypt, I happened across two men sitting at a cafe in Alexandria. I was young enough that they looked far older than they probably were, and upon noticing me, they were gracious enough to continue their conversation in English for my benefit.

This was a couple years after the official end of the 2009 H1N1 influenza epidemic — colloquially known as swine flu — which had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. Egypt had attracted global scrutiny for its extreme preliminary measures: Before a single case had been reported, the Egyptian government ordered the nationwide culling of all pigs.

This response to the outbreak damaged foreign opinion, hurt the economy and jeopardized humanitarian aid. Even after years had passed, Alexandria’s tourism industry — in which I assume these two men worked — was still recovering. They relayed these ramifications with sharp sighs and shaking heads, then said something in Arabic, but repeated it in English. Crudely translating it back, it must’ve been something like “alkhanazir la tazal maytat.”

“Still, the pigs are dead.”

As a child, none of this made much sense to me, but I’ve been thinking about it recently as I scramble for a final revelation to tie up my time at this university in one neat narrative thesis. I put a lot of stock in the meaning of things, and I’m wracking my brain as to the meaning behind the consequences of the choice to kill those pigs. How ultimately futile it was; thousands of swine flu cases were still confirmed in Egypt, and hundreds still died.

It reminds me of the situation we find ourselves in now, fighting a war to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed because the United States started that very same war at the behest of Israel.

The Strait of Hormuz is a channel between Iran and Oman which operates as a critical shipping lane for oil, among other resources. Historically defended by Iran’s navy, the strait was placed under military blockade by Iran at the beginning of the war in early March, after the U.S. assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Robert Shrum, director of the Dornsife Center for the Political Future, said this was the most dangerous period of his life since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“There are years when nothing happens, and then there are weeks when centuries happen,” Shrum said. “[President Donald Trump] tore up the Iran agreement negotiated by [former President] Barack Obama … He’s now trying, fundamentally, to get back to the same place [as before] where the Strait of Hormuz is open.”

Shrum said he didn’t know whether the president expected Israel’s sudden invasion of Southern Lebanon in April. Israeli missile strikes killed hundreds of Lebanese as villages were leveled.

While Israel initially claimed that its assault was another action in its war against the Lebanese Shia militia of Hezbollah, the nation later announced its intent to expand its borders again by occupying and colonizing what land it secures in Lebanon after the ground invasion ends.

However, ceasefires between both America and Iran and Israel and Lebanon have been negotiated as of April 7, to mixed success. One major catalyst in these negotiations was the international reaction to the United States’ war conduct, which included a strike that hit an Iranian school and killed over 100 children, and a Truth Social post from Trump which began with the sentence, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Diego Andrades, CPF’s assistant director, said that the American voters who were likely to stick by Trump through an unpopular war would reach their breaking point after a separate Truth Social post on April 13, in which Trump depicted himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick.

“Americans across the country voted to put Donald Trump in power in part because he was a ‘no new wars’ president,” Andrades said. “Voters are starting to realize that Donald Trump is deviating heavily from the platform that he ran on, with regard to a lot of our conflicts that are ongoing in the Middle East, and both the war in Iran with Israel and our allyship.”

Trump’s approval rating has indeed hit a second-term low in the midst of the Iran war, earning some criticism from The Vatican. In response, Trump called Pope Leo XIV “weak on crime” and said that Leo — an American — would not have been appointed by the College of Cardinals’ conclave if Trump himself had not been elected as president.

Vice President JD Vance followed suit, suggesting that the Pope should “be more careful” when pontificating on matters of theology. Shrum, meanwhile, said that attacking the Pope is “completely stupid.”

“I’ll give you one prediction,” Shrum said. “There will be an American who wins the Nobel Peace Prize, and his name will be Leo XIV, not Donald Trump.”

As conflict raged between nations across the face of the Earth, four humans soared far above it. In NASA’s Artemis II mission, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen stole more distance from our planet than anyone before.

Circling the moon, they became the first humans to visit in over 50 years, documenting their journey through photographs for the world to see. The mission was one more success in the Artemis program, which is planned to establish a lunar base designed to stage an eventual mission to Mars.

David Barnhart, a research professor of astronautics in the Viterbi School of Engineering, led a USC group in refining Artemis II’s frequency on behalf of NASA.

“What we’re trying to do is to help NASA tune the communications that come back and forth from the spacecraft, so [for] future missions it locks in and is able to track specific frequencies,” Barnhart said. “If you’re not on the right frequency and they’re sending a picture, you’re only going to get three-quarters of the picture.”

As USC faced Artemis’ Orion spacecraft only during certain hours, stations in other countries assisted NASA when USC could not. Vishruti Gohel, a graduate student studying astronautical engineering, said she’s noticed reignited interest in spacefaring as the Artemis mission drew nearer.

“Since human lives [are] at stake, it’s a big mission,” Gohel said. “That calls for additional testing, stringent redundancy, reliability requirements, and passing through that all is a Herculean mission.”

The astronauts splashed down April 10 to the welcome of a Navy recovery crew, which included Master Diver and Trojan alum Ryan Crider. Gov. Gavin Newsom welcomed the astronauts back home to Earth as they touched down off the California coast. As Newsom prepares to leave his office, the gubernatorial race behind him has seen massive upheaval.

Eric Swalwell, the Democratic favorite, was accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women, leading to his exit from the race. The remaining candidates are now rushing to fill the vacuum and campaign to the California voting public. A debate featuring these candidates was scheduled to be held at USC but was cancelled amid allegations of racial bias, as all invited candidates were white.

While Republican candidate Steve Hilton currently leads polling at 17.8%, Democratic candidate Tom Steyer has seen an increase in polling month-over-month, launching from 4% in December to 14.9% in April. The most dramatic rise, however, belongs to Democratic candidate Xavier Becarra, whose numbers had dropped to 3% in March before suddenly shooting to 13% in April.

Becarra still remains in 4th place, however, behind Republican candidate Chad Bianco at 13.3% as of April. As the momentum increases in the gubernatorial race, these numbers are sure to shift ahead of the November elections’ fever pitch.

Elsewhere on campus, most of the commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients were revealed throughout April. Gustavo Dudamel, legendary music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was named as the main stage commencement speaker on Mar. 30, and other school-specific addressees were revealed shortly after.

These include The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland for the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; former Aerospace Corporation CEO William Ballhaus Jr. for Viterbi; and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for the Price School of Public Policy.

Elle Woods was also welcomed to the USC campus as the School of Dramatic Arts concluded its mainstage show, “Legally Blonde.” While the original movie was filmed on USC’s campus, the University refused the producers’ request to set the film on campus, so a fictional Californian university took its place. The stage play rectified that with permission from Amanda Brown, the musical’s original author.

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Woods’ actress Lydia Berckley said she suddenly had to prepare for an 11-show run on finding out she earned the part.

“I had to keep looking at it, because I was like, ‘This can’t be real,’” Berckley said. “And then I just burst into tears and missed my class because I was such a mess.”

That message of persistence comes with an implication: Rejecting the point of panic.

Berckley’s intentionality in exploring the character of Elle Woods undoubtedly contributed to her stellar performance. Understanding cannot be forced, bought or contrived. Whether speaking of musicals, international relations or rocket science, the moment calls for a scalpel, not a hammer.

I think about those men at the cafe in Egypt, and how their lives were directly and deeply affected by the reckless decision to slaughter a whole species. I think about the same thing here at home, and all over the world: the gracelessness afforded by cheap esteem and incentivized by an unsimple dilemma. When we rebuke impulsiveness and adhere to the purposefulness of poise, we can go to the moon and beyond.

I do appreciate leaps of faith; I’ve taken a few. But there’s a difference between a Hail Mary and a nuclear solution. There’s a void waiting for me; I don’t know what I’ll do or where I’ll go after graduation. But responding with desperation and buckling for some half-baked impatient idea of safety will do more harm than good. Stay composed: your choices matter. And few choices will ever matter more than your choice of words.

I despise effort and experiences turning out meaningless; I put a lot of stock in the meaning of things. But I despise regret even more. I despise looking back and knowing I traded a frying pan for a fire. My revelation is this: Trust in meaning, even when you can’t see it yet. One day, you might look back at yourself sitting in a cafe fifteen years younger and, suddenly, nothing has ever made more sense than two old strangers rambling about the pigs.

This story compiles events from Feb. 28 through April 24.