By Frances George- A Baylor Parent
A month or so ago, my daughter called out of the blue and announced, “I think I’ll come home for spring break.” Call me a bad mother, but I thought that was odd and told her so. Oops.
Instead I launched into a Mini Mother Sermon (do you ever do that?) that went something like this:
“Honey, this is your next to last spring break. EVER. You know, you don’t get those in Adult Land. Go and be with your friends at a wonderful destination and make memories. Get the most out of this unique and marvelous season called college! Home will be here waiting for you at Easter.”
In the end Mary Scott ended up going skiing in Colorado with ten other friends and had a ball after the 17 hour drive to the ski resort. (I received a text saying “I’m here!” at 4:23AM…. It was a beautiful sight even if it was the Sunday morning of Daylight Savings Time!)
Each day we received pictures of fun on the slopes, a day at the spa, tubing, dinners in the house, fun playing out in the snow, ski lift pictures, and sitting in the sun on the deck. By mid-week a phone call came and she said, “Mom, I’m so glad I’m here! We have had the best time. You know, we didn’t really all know each other that well when we came but now we’ve gotten really close and have had the best time being together! We have been able to relax, play games at night, pack lunches each day and just enjoy hanging out together.” Your normal spring break report, right?
Well, this is the part that makes Baylor, once again, so uniquely great. One day, Mary Scott called right in the middle of the day and I asked why she wasn’t skiing. She said, “Mom, I just decided to stay in today and have some quiet time alone. She told me “I wrote, had a long quiet time in the Word, prayed, listened to sermons and thought about the future. It was nice to just be still. Thank you, Mom, for letting me come.” How many college students do you know that go on spring break and take a mini retreat in the middle to dig deep in scripture, ponder their future, and then call to say “Thanks”?
After a week of skiing and relaxation, it was time for her to return to school. And very early Saturday morning, I received another text from Mary Scott at 3:23 AM claiming, “I’m back! Such fun!”
Third spring break in the books. One more to go. More memories to treasure. New friends along the way. In a day when so many students in so many other top tier colleges spend their spring break on one long continual binge of the “wild life”, Baylor students are a cut above; as someone once said, “These students are top drawer.” They have so much fun together and are grateful for every minute. Even though I personally knew only four of the eleven on the trip, I was not worried one minute about any of the group. You see, I have come to understand what constitutes a Baylor student and because of that, I knew they would look after each other and would be wise.
Studying the Word, breaking bread, laughter, snow, memories for a lifetime. This is the stuff of college as it should be.
This is the Baylor difference. It may not seem like an enormous thing but spring break at Baylor is just another reason why we love this school. The simple things sometime speak the loudest. Won’t you join the fun, Spring Break, Baylor- Style!