Baylor’s cross-country team will kick off the 2012 season on Friday with the Bear Twilight Invitational at the Heart of Texas Soccer Complex in Waco.

The meet will begin at 7 p.m. with the Baylor women competing in the 4,000-meter loop, followed by the men’s 6,000-meter loop.

“It looks like it is going to be hot, but we are looking forward to running Friday night,” head coach Todd Harbour said.

The 2011 invitational reached a scorching 101 degrees, and the weather during this year’s meet is expected to be just as hot.

For most students at Baylor, we have 126,227,704 seconds — or four years — in college.

Only 126,227,704 seconds to figure out exactly what we want to do and get the education so other people will let us do what we want to do.

That’s not very much time. We have to take X and Y and Z and ABCDEFG on top of that and that leaves very little time to really think about anything else.

Fellow students, I must admit that the second week of school has been painful, for many reasons, as I’m sure most of you will agree.

Not only has the excitement and spontaneity of summer become a fading star in our memories, the fall looms before us like a solemn mountain in the distance, threatening us with all the hazy unknowns in our futures.

As Baylor undergraduates, we must feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, rent apartments and purchase textbooks. We pay dues for extracurricular activities, pay for parking decals, and gas up our vehicles all by ourselves…or with the loving assistance of our parents. Regardless, somebody’s pocket is taking a major hit. But as tuition and fees continue to increase, are we really reaping any benefits, or just paving the way for future debt to ensue?