Viewpoint: Baylor has been blessed

Jeffrey Swindoll
Jeffrey Swindoll
Jeffrey Swindoll

By Jeffrey Swindoll
Sports Writer

There are so many great things happening right now in Waco. It’s the dawn of a brand new era. The opening of McLane Stadium was just the cherry on top of a multitude of blessings Baylor Nation and Waco have seen in the past few years.

As local pride is instilled in our hearts, excitement builds to see the potential of this community realized. It’s easy to forget or not recognize how far we’ve come in a matter of just three years, so I just want to make sure that we all see these great things happening and respond with thankfulness.

As a junior, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing so many great sports moments for Baylor in the past few seasons. Now in my third semester writing for the Lariat, I was up in the press box for the Northwestern State game at McLane Stadium and I was just taken aback by the unprecedented opportunities we now have as a student body.

I sat there with my co-workers and said to them, “We could be attending some other university, but God gave us the blessing of being right here, right now. Not a year earlier, and not year later because God wants to do great things with us in this time.”

I see many things happening that are going to be huge down the road. Downtown Waco is growing and establishing its own identity and that’s exciting to see. The dining hall in Penland was renovated to the new Penland Crossroads. Our sports teams and facilities are getting even better. More people actually know where Waco is. The plans for the Brazos Riverwalk look unreal.

I simply wanted to recognize the overwhelming blessings that have been poured out on this school and urge all of us to be thankful for being a part of this historic time to be a Baylor Bear. Let’s make the most of our time here. It’ll be gone in the blink of an eye.

Jeffrey Swindoll is a junior journalism and film and digital media double major from Miami. He is a sports writer for the Lariat.