By Mallory Harris | Opinion Editor
In case you weren’t aware, there seem to be a million things happening all at once all over the world. Some call it a dumpster fire; others say it’s a normal day in the newsroom. While it’s hard to stay on top of every single story, students should start building the habit of knowing current events on a global, national and local level.
Take this from a student who is studying how to report on current events: There is a plethora of ways to gather information, and you will miss at least one story. It’s not from a lack of trying; trust me, if you spent all your time reading about what’s happening in the world, you wouldn’t have time to go to class. However, don’t let the magnitude or heat of the argument deter you or stress you out from learning something valuable.
For example, mostly everyone knows about the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and the U.S.’ interaction due to the nature of the situation. However, many might be shocked to hear that the queen of England has been infected with COVID-19 since Sunday or that the truck convoy that started in Canada last week is making its way to Washington D.C — not to mention local news on Baylor’s campus, including the debacle between All-University Sing and the appearance of College GameDay this weekend, or in Waco as the traffic and construction pose a constant state of confusion.
If you knew all that information already, props to you for staying up to date with the world. However, if you didn’t, maybe start to take a second out of your walk toward campus to look up the current events of the day on Google. All of these stories have varying levels of importance or relation to Baylor students, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it or have an awareness of the world around us. The things that happen don’t always directly affect us as students, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore these topics or bypass them on your daily social media scroll because it’s across the ocean.
There are also endless outlets where you can learn about current events. However, I must make a warning of falling down rabbit holes and gathering information from one-sided media outlets, because that can affect what you read every day. My advice is to sign up for a news outlet that you trust on each level: global, national and local. Just being current students, staff or faculty at Baylor means we get access to the New York Times without any hassle or subscription.
The one side of knowing information and feeling like you’re on top of everything going on in the world is a great feeling, but if you feel the drowning sensation of knowing too much, that’s a flare saying to take a break. Don’t let the world’s issues become something that drag you down every day. There’s a fine line between knowing the facts of the day and causing inner turmoil that isn’t yours to fix. Start this new habit slowly, and see where it takes you.
Now, I don’t bring this up to make anyone feel less than knowledgeable or to point at anyone. But having this habit can be such a huge advantage when leaving college and having intelligent conversations with others out in the real world. You may just surprise people with your knowledge or start up truly interesting conversations with people.
