It’s easy to chase the polished cities and careers. But leaving Waco means leaving behind the porch light conversations, the neighbors who know your name and the kind of realness you don’t find everywhere. In a world that rewards hustle, this town reminded me what it means to be grounded.
Representing other cultures does not negate your own Christianity, the same way being a student at Baylor does not automatically make you a Baptist. As students, we represent Baylor as a Christian university as much as you, and we reflect God’s love by showing the same compassion and care to our fellow students.
In the desert, there was no air conditioner humming, no cars passing or machinery whirring. There were no signs of humanity; I was extremely uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why I think everyone should experience camping.
It’s not too late to relearn how to learn from experiences. Maybe that means leaving the phone in your pocket for one sunset, or asking a local a question instead of just taking a photo with them. Perhaps it means accepting that not every moment is meant to be shared on a screen; some are intended to be kept private.
When you hear a statistic as startling as the rise in autism rates, your mind immediately searches for a reason. And like a knight in shining armor, Trump rolls out the red carpet of rhetoric, parading right over the big picture.
It’s not easy to hear opposing viewpoints and beliefs that differ from your own while keeping an open mind, but it’s important nonetheless. It takes everybody to create a culture of understanding through civil discourse. Be the change in a conversation. Be the devil’s advocate.
Human interaction can’t compete with the dopamine spike that social media provides. The attention economy has made focus a rare commodity. Every app is engineered to pull us back in, fragmenting not just our time, but our relationships. Friendship now competes with algorithms designed to hijack our curiosity.
You don’t owe anyone your time, your energy or your emotional labor. But you do owe the world your basic decency. Because when everyone’s too busy proving they can survive alone, we all end up standing in locked rooms, thinking the title of “most self-sufficient” is how you win life.
