I was so terrified of the answers to my questions that I simply stopped asking. How could the Church love gay people but hate that they were gay? Why did the same people who quoted Exodus and Deuteronomy refer to other human beings as “illegals”? Was I actually going to go to hell because my family went to church on Sunday instead of Saturday? If God was good, why was I so alone?

Part of learning how to get over my social anxiety was learning that conversations with strangers could be playful, fun and deeply fulfilling at the same time if I was willing to reject some social norms and shift to topics that brought a deeper narrative, such as the ones I asked the first gent.

Growing up doesn’t mean losing what you once loved, these things can morph and exist in your life, you just must be intentional about it. There will always be people who look down on you, but they are probably jealous that you have another avenue that makes you happy. Growing up isn’t sad, but subjugating yourself to what others impose on you is.

All I can say is, thank God I only spent two weeks at Baylor before I got my foot in the door at The Lariat. I don’t know what else I would have done here to make my college experience half as meaningful.

Politics and personal feelings aside, we need to uphold the Constitution and allow due process to take its course. The least we can do as fellow students is show our support and constantly be a shoulder to lean on during difficult times.

In the modern era, but also decades past, some popular musicians find it acceptable to merely get up on stage and perform their songs as they appear on their records. These musical offenders can be found across every genre: pop singers and bands, country artists, classic rockers and others all indulge in this practice.