By Frances George, A Baylor Parent
This is crunch time; you are entering the final months of high school and beginning to hone in on the decision for college based on all the wonderful acceptances you are receiving! Congratulations on the myriad of choices you have for the next wonderful chapter of life.
I talk with my Baylor daughter, several times a week. Sometimes she sends me texts saying thing like, “Pray for me! I’m getting ready to take my midterm in Spanish III.” Other times, she calls breathless as she walks between classes. Occasionally, I’ll hear from her in the late afternoon, and she’ll tell me about the previous weekend’s happy events. Then there are those coveted moments when I hear, “Oh Mom, I do love it here! Thank you for sending me to this place,” accompanied by a picture of sunset on the Baylor campus as she’s taking a late afternoon run.
Lately, however, all I see are texts that say, “Pray for me! One more week before SING!” or “More rehearsals, more rehearsals…it’s going to be GREAT! Hurry down!” with a picture of her crashed on the floor of her sorority room. All of these texts, Instagrams and messages, at all hours of the day and night, have to do with SING.
Sing, a musical extravaganza (unlike anything on any campus, anywhere in the United States, maybe the world), is an all-consuming competition between student organizations (usually the Greeks) that requires tireless hours, days and weeks of preparation for a full-blown Broadway-style performance that is nationally known. Sing includes professional costumes, Hollywood choreographers, enormous sets, six nights of sold-out performances that draw parents, students and friends from around the country to witness high-level entertainment from Baylor students! Could anything be more unique, more wonderfully exciting, more BAYLOR?
The level of enthusiasm is quite contagious and even though I’ve never been I have seen clips online from last year’s winning performances. I must say, I am expecting to be highly impressed. We have tickets for the second weekend this year. Mary Scott stood in line for FIVE hours to get our seats. Our son lives in New York City, and I have seen many Broadway productions over the years, and from all I hear, these rival the best of the best in the Big Apple. The top eight acts of Sing perform again in the fall at an encore presentation during football season. It is every group’s dream to be in the top eight. From the time school starts in January until the final performance of Sing, the students’ lives revolve around the planning, rehearsals and performances. Indeed, I think the spring semester academic schedule might be planned around this singular event.
Baylor is unique in so many ways. This is just one more reason to say “YES!” to Baylor. Our daughter has jumped into to Baylor life with both feet and has been blessed in every regard. She has been given academic opportunities (Spain this summer with Baylor – more about that in another blog), chances for spiritual growth through her amazing church and Bible study community and the ability to develop deeper friendships through Sing! All of this makes me smile when I think of the many choices our daughter had for college. None could be more rewarding than this Baylor education, this Baylor life.
As the day draws near for you to make your final choice for this next chapter, I’ll risk a little ridicule and say that I think you’ll SING for joy if your student chooses Baylor. I know we do! I’ll let you know if her sorority makes it to the top eight!
Blessings to you,
Frances George