By Addison Gernenz | Intern
In the final weeks before graduation, time feels different for students preparing to walk the stage. Outside Pat Neff Hall, caps and gowns hang from arms while seniors in suits and white dresses stop to take turns for one more picture in front of the building which has framed their time at Baylor.
Portland senior Rebecca Tietze is just one of those seniors who is spending their last few weeks as a Baylor student reminiscing and reflecting.
“My time here has taught me how I want to live my life moving forward,” Tietze said. “You come to college, and you’re leaving your parents’ house for the first time, and have the things that they teach you and the way that they do life, but this is the time where I decided for myself what I wanted my life to look like.”
Tietze said the community she found at Baylor through her church, Baylor Religious Hour Choir and the Honors Residential College taught her how to truly live out her Christian faith.
“Coming from public school, I never really had super close friends who were Christian who thought deeply about their faith,” Tietze said. “Being here and surrounded by so many people who take their faith so seriously, it really inspired me to take mine that seriously. It made me think about why I do the things I do and whether it reflects Christ.”
Tietze elaborated that her friends around her taught her the importance of rest and reflection.
“We’re very accomplishment-driven; we want to get things done, but we forget to stop,” Tietze said. “Baylor is where I really learned to rest well and enjoy time with other people, not just to be so focused on my academics or my future career that I set everything else aside.”
Plano senior Andrew Parks said the biggest takeaway he has from Baylor is learning what it means to love people.
“There’s so much more to loving people than you might initially think,” Parks said. “I’ve learned a lot about how to be mature and to have good, God-honoring conversations with people. I’ve had a few people who have been mentors to me, basically my whole time in college, and all of them have absolutely poured into me.”
Parks said that, despite the cliche, he would encourage students to invest in their community as soon as possible.
“I was basically pulled kicking and screaming into community, and it led to some of the best years of my life,” Parks said. “I would never have had that unless someone had pulled me in.”
Tempe, Ariz., senior Caedyn Skinner looks back on her time at Baylor with fondness and encourages incoming students to step out of their comfort zone and meet new people.
“Be as social as you can at the start, and then you’ll find good people to be with,” Skinner said.
Over the past four years at Baylor, Skinner said she has learned more about how she thinks and forms opinions, and that she has grown in her independence.
“I learned you don’t have to conform to what everyone else does,” Skinner said. “That’s something you get a lot at Baylor, people who think the same way, and it’s okay not to think the same way as everyone else.”
As graduation approaches, Skinner is thankful for the time she spent making memories and building relationships with her friends and the community she built around herself.
“My junior and senior year, my friend group got smaller, and I got the opportunity to build better, deeper relationships with a smaller number of people,” Skinner said. “Enjoy the time with your friends, because now that senior year is coming to a close, you won’t have people as close to you anymore, location-wise. Make the time you have let count.”
