Real families have issues. They have tense meals and strained relationships. Being at school doesn’t fix those things; it just helps us forget about them. Regardless of the issues, our families are still our families. And what’s a better time to express our love for them than the holidays?
Browsing: conversation
This holiday season, let’s try and change the conversation to something beyond how many pounds we’ve lost or gained. Shifting the focus onto other things can not only be for you, but also for other people in the room who don’t know how to speak up.
With less than 2 weeks until the presidential election, tensions are high across the country. A February 2024 Pew poll found that 65% of Americans are exhausted by politics and 55% are angry when they think about politics.
“I feel like a lot of the humanity has been taken out of politics,” Walsh said. “And, I feel like he’s really going to help people remember that in the end, we’re all just individuals, learning and growing and expressing ourselves.”
When we start getting into the more foundational aspects of political and cultural life, like whether or not gender or sex exist in an objective reality, the effort to seek a middle ground becomes intellectually dishonest and logically fallacious, because a middle ground simply does not exist.
Call your grandparents, visit them, soak up all the wisdom and life stories that they have. It is truly such a gift to learn from the older generations.
It can be easy to retreat into relaxing alone and avoiding family, but there are small and thoughtful ways to combat some hermit-like tendencies we may pick up for break. Be purposeful with your time, and be intentional with showing your family gratitude. Members of the Editorial Board have compiled their pointers on how to show love over the holiday season.
The idea of eternal punishment insinuates the notion that it’s not possible to grow past your mistakes. What makes the most sense based on this interpretation is purgatory — a temporary place for purification.
Spend more time interacting with the world instead of watching it through a screen. When you wake up, don’t let time go to waste watching others’ lives when you could be out living yours. Be where your feet are.
It’s no secret that politics is a black hole of economic jargon and social nuances. Yet, for some reason, college students are expected to magically have their views all figured out at 18. Tack it onto their to-do list, right after choosing a major and determining what line of work will fill the next 40 years of their lives.
What I’ve realized is that when I apologize so frequently, I undermine my own existence before I even give anyone else the chance to. I invalidate what I feel and need before someone else might shut me down. Maybe it’s some coping mechanism for the rejection I’ve experienced in the past, or maybe it’s just a bad habit I pick up in situations where I lack confidence.
How should we address these types of controversial questions? We need to be able to create safe spaces for these discussions. That means acknowledging that everyone’s experiences are valid, recognizing that their political philosophy does not determine their worth as a human being and using respectful rhetoric.
The Baylor 101 series provides an opportunity for faculty and staff to learn about important topics and updates related to Baylor. From student life to campus safety, the virtual conversation series works to address the broad scope of the university.
At a university whose mission centers around leadership, academic excellence and “Christian commitment within a caring community,” it has become normalized to be religious on a more public scale.
We have to stop letting our ways of relationship-building be defined by a single word. No matter which side of the pendulum you tend to sway, you have unique gifts that allow you to love others in a way only you can, and that’s more valuable than any other static personality classification you could be assigned.
Readers Meet the Author, a series highlighting the prolific work of Baylor faculty and staff, will hold two sessions this semester. These sessions will feature discussions from Dr. João Chaves and Dr. Greg Garrett about their respective works.
Our desire for independence has become self-destructive. Life has become a game where whoever holds out the longest before asking for help is the winner. But what do they win? It’s time to change the rules of the game. We win by admitting our weaknesses and allowing those who love us to fill in the gaps.
Through this light-hearted discourse, you figure out how much you actually have in common with someone even if it’s over the least important of matters. However, to really make small talk work, it begins with being real.
The holidays are coming, and with them comes good food, less heat and — what I believe is one of the worst possibilities of human interaction — small talk. This year, I propose we all collectively agree to skip it.
The benefits of compliments will outweigh the detrimental fear of awkwardness and the potential for an uncomfortable situation every time.
You’re sitting in a class, the professor is giving a lecture, and then he pauses to direct a question to the class. There’s silence. Then more silence. Then it becomes an awkward silence. Eventually the professor moves on, but it’ll happen again.
Dear old-fashioned, outdated, face-to-face communication: We are no longer in need of your service, but thanks anyways – we have Facebook.
Cell phones, social media sites and computers – to name a few – seem to be replacing authentic, face-to-face communication. I remember the days where sitting at the dinner table each night consisted of conversational replies other than, “Oh, sorry mom, what? I didn’t hear you, I was texting my friends back,” or, “Hold that thought while I post how much fun we’re having on Instagram.”
