By Frances George 

2016. My Baylor senior Mary Scott graduates in just four months. Four months, that will fly by as quickly as the last four years have.

Four years ago, we wondered what she would wear on her first day of class. Four months from now, Mary Scott will don cap and gown and receive a diploma which will represent so much more than four years in a classroom, papers, midterms, finals and a degree. Mary Scott will receive her degree for life. Here at Baylor our middle child has grown up into a lovely young woman, full of life, intentional in relationships with friends, and loving the Lord in a deep and uniquely Mary Scott way. Her faith is her own. Her cap and gown will represent the beautiful metamorphosis.

Four years ago, our daughter came to Baylor, knowing no one. Four months from now she will graduate with friends, too numerous to count, with whom she has lived life to the full, traveled the world, experienced the Texas State Fair, attended concerts in Austin, traveled to San Antonio, eating dinner on the Riverwalk, spent spring break with girlfriends and their mothers on Destin Beach, spent summers in North Carolina introducing Texas girls to Carolina girls, known the joy of first love in college and the heartbreak of burying a mother of a close friend in her sorority who had also become a precious friend to me.

Four years ago, Mary Scott called frequently to share with me her victories and disappointments in the classroom, of the joys in her new social world, and in life. Four months from now, I think she’ll do the same…she will always be my Mary Scott, quick to respond to a text or send me a picture of a Baylor sunset while out on a run because it is so beautiful. She’ll write one last time, as she has multiple times, “Mom, thank you for sending me to this place.” Some things do not change.

Perhaps one of the sweetest confirmations of God calling Mary Scott to Baylor four years ago was revealed to me just four weeks ago in a rather unlikely fashion. Four years ago, Mary Scott decided to become a part of a house. When she started the process, she knew no one. Over the course of recruitment, six (new) close friends said to one another just before Pref Day, “We feel that God is going to use us in some way in this house. We are all going to pledge together.” They could have pledged other houses, pledged separately, leaving their individual mark on each house but together they chose to be used as a strong group of friends in one place and make a difference. In the end, this has been true. Four years later, Mary Scott was one of two sisters, asked to compose and read a letter to the new girls going through recruitment, a letter addressed to Mary Scott’s Pledge Class from freshman year, a letter composed by a young North Carolina girl whom no one knew four years ago but who now represents her class. When Mary Scott read her letter to me before heading back to Baylor, I listened to my daughter’s words and stories. My daughter, I realized, has grown up over the past four years, through joy and sorrow, success and disappointment, having made friends who will be friends for life, who will laugh together, be in each other’s weddings, celebrate the joys of life and hold each other’s hands in the sorrows that will surely come. As she read, I realized most profoundly that it was to Baylor specifically that God called Mary Scott. He had something unique that He wanted her to do here on Baylor’s campus, an imprint He wanted her to leave here at Baylor Nation.  I realized as she read, that the Baylor experience imparts to students not only what they can gain personally over four years but the responsibility to pass that wisdom and insight and joy to the next generation of students.  She read a letter that leaves not only a legacy but a challenge to the young women who will do the same over their next four years. Four years ago I wrote letters to Mary Scott with wisdom for life. Four weeks ago, Mary Scott wrote a single letter to a new generation of sisters filled with hope for tomorrow.

Four years ago Mary Scott came to Baylor a young girl plotting out the path to class. Four months from now she will graduate, a young woman,  properly  prepared for life, more uniquely fashioned in His image, more deeply in love with Jesus, and very much someone I want to call friend as well as daughter.

Four years went by so quickly. Four months will fly by as well. And I am certain, as she has over the past four years, Mary Scott will live these last four months to the full.

And that is the Baylor difference. So much life packed into four short years. Four incredible, indescribable years. Join us, for the adventure of a lifetime that prepares your son or daughter for life.