It's really very sad that I've never heard her roommates name until now, only hers, but the media only found her involvement the most interesting, I guess and decided to take that and run with it. Her life was undoubtedly changed forever after this ordeal and her hopes of returning to normalcy are nothing more than a dream that will never happen. How does someone come back from that? I understand she's trying to charge on regardless of the judgement but if it were me, I'd completely change everything just to have some sense of peace.

I didn't know much about this when it came out, just the bits and pieces I heard from the news as my parents watched the evening broadcast. I was a freshman in high school at the time and honestly had my mind on lots of other teenage girl things. I find this story very intriguing as I read it now and can't help but to feel sorry for Amanda as it seems she got caught up with the wrong guy and the wrong situation. In her words, the media spun this into some dramatic scene creating and fabricating a lot of their own details. She had no one helping her and not a leg to stand on in a foreign country. I can’t imagine the feeling of helplessness she must have felt and what must have going through her mind as all this unfolded. I think she is correct in her scrutiny of the media because of their dramatic portrayal of the entire story. It couldn’t have made her trial easy and possibly even lead to the conviction that she received.