Fall is here, homecoming is around the corner and the Livingstones hosted their annual homecoming dinner for the Baylor community on Wednesday evening. Food trucks lined Third Street, grills were fired up and students lined up from Allbritton House to Marrs McLean.

Generation after generation, Baylor students continue to return to the campus their parents called home. For these families, homecoming is more than just a campus tradition; it is a celebration of a legacy.

Homecoming is a celebration — a time to gather, get to know one another, share ideas and memories and have fun. Ultimately, I always knew that homecoming was an opportunity, but I never knew it as a blessing until COVID-19.

Slapped on the side of Brooks Residential College, the words, “To you I hand the torch,” are for many, the extent of knowledge on Samuel Palmer Brooks’ Immortal Message. But Homecoming is a better time than any to remember the story behind those words: they’re a message of hopefulness and responsibility, even when the times around us are full of uncertainty, struggle and death.