By Rory Dulock | Copy Editor
I only applied to six universities.
I was so lost in high school. It was my senior year, I had no idea where I wanted to go and barely knew what I wanted to do other than “something that will allow me to write.” I applied to all those places just because someone else told me I should, or because they were where my classmates were going.
Baylor wasn’t even on my radar until the end of my junior year. It should have never been an option for me — until it was.
My first introduction to Baylor was through the student media director at the time, who was representing Baylor’s journalism, public relations and new media department at the UIL Academic State Meet.
I was just some small town, 2A public school kid nervously approaching this guy and thinking, “Why am I even trying? A school like this isn’t even possible for me.” But I also remember how I got more and more excited as the conversation progressed about the possibility of going to Baylor.
That was the first spark.
The second spark came in January of my senior year, when my mom encouraged me to apply to both TCU and Baylor and schedule campus tours. At this point in time, I had done a couple of tours that were unimpressive.
I begrudgingly applied to Baylor with the idea of it being some rich-kid school where I wouldn’t belong.
I visited Baylor first. I will never forget it.
Everything about the tour seemed so perfect at the time. The campus was beautiful, I reunited with the then-student media director.
Everyone there was so … happy. Authentically happy.
That gut feeling and excitement I had touring Baylor hadn’t been felt anywhere else, as cringey as it sounds.
Then there was TCU. That school would have theoretically made more sense for me, since my uncle was a Horned Frog graduate and I had attended many a sporting event at Amon G. Carter Stadium growing up. And, yes, unfortunately, several photos do exist of younger me wearing Horned Frog merch … good luck finding them.
But I caught myself comparing everything on the TCU tour to Baylor, and it just didn’t live up to it.
Quite possibly the smartest thing that will ever come out of a Horned Frog’s mouth was from the campus tour guide, “I had a gut feeling that this was the right place for me, and I hope that wherever you end up, you will also have that gut feeling.”
As soon as my mom and I got in the car after touring, I looked at her and said, “I didn’t have that gut feeling that I had at Baylor.”
During this time in high school, I was really struggling with my faith and still processing the passing of my father. Dealing with that magnitude of mental distress was definitely a main reason as to why I was not on top of my post-high school grad plans. But it also meant I was overlooking certain moments in my life, and when looking back, they were ways God was trying to reach out to me.
For someone who was trying to avoid church in their anger with God, at the time, it seemed ironic and coincidental that I naturally gravitated toward a Christian university. Or was it God trying to pull me back into a Christian community? I now believe it was the latter.
As someone who rarely wanted to pray to God at the time, it was definitely odd for me to feel the need to pray every night until Baylor’s financial offer came, that I would have the same opportunity as everybody else to get my education, despite my financial circumstances.
Coming from a single-income household with multiple dependents, finances were a large part of my college decision-making.
The thought of attending a private university seemed impossible. Money would have to be given to me nearly in full to be able to attend a private school, especially at a school like Baylor, whose tuition has nearly doubled in the past decade.
By the luck of the draw (of course, I really mean the grace of God), I received my best financial aid offer from the six universities: Baylor, the most unlikely university of all.
I really thanked God that day. But, of course, I needed to thank him every day after that because that was the final step before I decided to come to Baylor.
I will always remember the exact moment when I openly stated, “I’m definitely not going to a private school or sticking around in Texas.”
God had the last laugh. And I’m grateful that he did. My time at Baylor has been transformative. I’ve learned so much about myself these last couple of years and have grown so much as a person — and I hope my peers feel the same way, or will feel the same way, about their college experience — no matter where they come from or how they got there.
