Browsing: Opinion

Editorials and opinions from the Lariat staff and readers.

One of the best parts of being music fans is supporting our favorite artists. We buy and listen to their music, share their new releases with our friends and make sure to purchase front row tickets for every show. Well, maybe not that last part, but for many fans, simply getting into the building to see their favorite artists can be a challenge.

The world needs parents who are ready to be parents, which results in well-adjusted children. One could make the argument that no one is really ever prepared to be a parent, which is true; no one child is exactly the same, and raising another human being is bound to be a lot of trial and error.

Minimalism has killed people’s creativity to put purpose and character in the details, opting for more basic designs in the name of being more economical and sleek. In turn, it has led to what many see as inauthentic creations that are only small points in a significant trend.

“Tomorrow is not promised” isn’t a warning — it’s an invitation. An invitation to live with urgency, to love without hesitation and to find comfort in knowing that when life ends, it might just be the beginning of something even greater.

Hate on all levels is unacceptable, especially at an institution that leans on faith, family and friendships. Being abhorrent toward someone for doing something wrong is stooping to their level. Accountability should never turn into cruelty. As Baylor students, we need to be better. As cliché as it sounds, we need to be better Baylor Bears.

With so much noise in the world today, it is easy to get overloaded. There are many ways someone can escape from the noise, whether it be social media scrolling, listening to music or reading a book. Recently, my favorite way to unwind and relax is sitting on the couch and watching a mindless TV show.

In a fast-paced world where “influence” is king, sometimes the greatest service we can render to our fellow man isn’t our advice, but our questions. All we want is to feel heard, to have influence, to feel needed. But when my speaking, influencing and importance come up against the teachings of Jesus, the choice is clear. I must cede to the one who died for me.

Snapchat is a social media platform that should be left in the past, where it belongs. If you want a career after college, do your mental health and authenticity a favor and move on from old habits. Snapchat feeds a self-destroying cycle.

Even as I’ve grown further from the target reader’s age and my peers have picked up books that aren’t written in Comic Sans, I have stuck around. The elementary school days waiting in the library for the newest title are gone, but the books still come to me through Amazon orders and half-serious birthday gifts.

Somewhere along the way, Christian music lost that edge. The industry leaned hard into worship pop, the kind of music that works well for congregational singing but leaves little room for anything else. Those songs have their place; they’re accessible and uplifting. But when they become the entire identity of Christian music, something important gets lost. Faith isn’t always neat, and the music should reflect that.

The association of reading and school work killed many of our desires to get lost in a good piece of literature. That association only grew stronger as we entered college, with numerous pages of reading assigned each night. Not only did we lack any desire, but now we had no time in which we could.

While people outside of the fanbase see us as poor, unfortunate souls grasping onto false hope, they overlook the characteristics that make a Cowboys fan a Cowboys fan — and believe it or not there are many appealing characteristics and qualities about us.

At its root, whimsy is not an aesthetic. True whimsy is older, deeper, stranger than that. It is the astonishment that we are here at all, alive, breathing, conscious, inside a universe that by all accounts should not have rolled the dice in our favor.

People now turn to AI as a data analyst, tutor, dietitian and surprisingly even for emotional support. But play therapist? That’s where things get dangerous. At first glance, this may sound reasonable. After all, AI doesn’t judge or bring its own feelings into the mix, but that’s the problem. AI isn’t capable of emotions or empathy, qualities that are essential in therapy.

At the edge of a black hole, we will drag ourselves into a pit that we or our mockeries of creation will not escape. We will have given consciousness to something that cannot think, eyes to a being that will never truly see and a mouth to something that will never be able to scream.

I used to think you had to be a fraternity DJ to enjoy house music. Now, the genre claims a spot on my Spotify Wrapped every year. As an ex-hater, let me convince you why house deserves a place in every person’s playlist.

The hardest lesson may be permitting yourself to grieve in a place that constantly tells you to achieve. Grief does not fit neatly between midterms and extracurriculars. It interrupts. It blurs. It breaks schedules and refuses productivity.

In an EDM-focused culture, it’s time for the college rock band to return. The next time you’re making weekend plans and thinking of attending an event based around a homemade YouTube trap mix, consider searching out your local college band instead. Go to a show and belt your heart out to a cover of Drops of Jupiter with your friends.

College isn’t only about grades; it’s about connection. It’s about knowing you belong somewhere, not just in a classroom, but in a community. Transfers bring resilience, fresh perspectives and determination to succeed, and it’s time for us to be fully included in the community.

Understanding where we go from here is pivotal. If we treat every life lost as nothing more than ammunition for ideological battles, we deny the sacredness of human life itself. This is not the time for rash remarks or partisan point-scoring; it is time for genuine change.

As we reflect on the impact social media has had on our 2025 minds, it is much less positive. Social media has produced an anxiety-ridden, disconnected and apathetic generation. Our minds are filled with constant noise and comparison. Every major and minor tragedy is broadcast to us in grotesque detail.

Come Friday afternoon, Barfield Drawing Room will be teeming with parents, tickets will be sold out for Baylor football’s non-conference clash with Samford and families clad in green and gold will flood 5th Street. For many, the promise of Family Weekend brings eager anticipation.

As stated in The Oxford Blue, “Music from the past is music with history, music that creates more than a desire to dance, it creates specific feelings of a particular moment in time, even if we weren’t necessarily alive at the time.”

Since mankind has been able to fly, companies have been looking at ways to capitalize on it. Howard Hughes had his Spruce Goose, Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin and Elon Musk has SpaceX. The United States is embarking on a unique era of space travel. We aren’t competing with the USSR to put a man on the moon anymore; the entire paradigm has shifted to looking for the most affordable and accessible ways to get people into space.

As we begin a new academic year, it’s an honor to step into the role of student body president. My top priority will be to represent my peers as the chief advocate for the student voice. Baylor is a special place that we are blessed to call home, and having been a Baylor fan for most of my life, I could not ask for a better way to spend my final year in Waco.

Picture a mischievous, weird-looking creature sewn into softness — bat-wide ears, marble-round eyes and a row of tiny needle teeth curving into a cheeky grin, all wrapped in shaggy, candy-colored fur. That is a Labubu: part gremlin, part rabbit, part sugary fever dream, designed to look both adorable and a little dangerous, like it might steal your heart and money in the same breath.