For a long time now, I've kept quiet about the scandals going on here. I've taken the jokes and insults about title IX, Baylor Football, you name it. I've watched the University get ripped apart by the media and country. I've seen the place I love turn into one large investigation and it is not easy. There are so many things wrong with the scandals going on, and Baylor is by NO MEANS innocent. Just as I felt we were starting fresh, with all new staff, things began to erupt again. I love this school, but something happened a while back. Somewhere along the line, we lost sight of what Baylor is meant to be, a university filled with growth, community and christlikeness, and it upsets me to see the connotations people have with Baylor now. After being apart of the Baylor family now for a semester, I understand the divided frustration. I understand being so confused as to why a place SO GREAT would do something SO WRONG. Don't believe everything you hear on the news, because when you look past the awful flaws the University made, you WILL see a golden University on the inside.
I never fully realized the depth the Baylor community covers until line camp. That week was not your average church camp week, but a week filled with traditions and that good ole Baylor Line. Taking a trip to where it all began in Independence, Texas sparked the tradition fire inside of me. We heard stories from past alumni filled with memories that I can correlate to my experiences so far this past year. We stood under the main pillars from the original campus and were officially recognized into the Baylor family. That week, I learned that it was the people who made Baylor so great.
As a student walking onto campus for your first tour, you start to sense that it's different here. I felt something that I didn't feel at any of the other schools I visited. You see the buildings and here about the academic/athletic accomplishes, but you don't understand what that feeling you feel is. For me, it didn't have anything to do with the football record, or the % of premed students who get into medical schools (even though it is pretty high yay!!!). The unknown feeling is what will eventually drive you to pay the housing deposit and say yes to the school. The answer to that feeling is found the first time you step on campus as a student. The loving family Baylor provides on the inside is NO MATCH to the awful things it shows on the outside. It's not easy trying to explain this to the future students and their parents who I've talked to on campus. They are looking for an explanation that I struggle to give. It's hard to use the word community when from the outside looking in there seems to be none.
But it's there. I promise. You can see it everyday in the hundreds of smiling students on their way to class. You can see it in the dedicated professors who work tirelessly to give us the best education possible. You can even see it in the alumni who continue to come back and relive their favorite memories on campus, but you won't feel it until you become part of the Baylor family.
Throughout the entire scandal leading up to August, I questioned Baylor. I questioned the administration. I questioned the values. After being here, I no longer question. If you are a future student, an outsider trying to find answers to Baylor's problems, or just a curious reader, know this: Baylor made mistakes. People apart of the Baylor family made mistakes. But I did not when I chose to come to school here. This school is rebuilding from the bottom up, and I have never been prouder to be apart of the foundation for what is to come.
Sic' em Bears.
