By Frances George
When you fly on cloudy days, isn’t it amazing the dramatic perspective shift you experience from the moment just before take- off, when you look up, seeing nothing but dark foreboding clouds above and within just a few short but “cloudy” moments after take- off, you break through and find yourself happily looking down on the same sea of clouds? When I fly from North Carolina to Texas (which I do multiple times a year with one May 2016 Baylor graduate and now with a new freshman Class of 2020 arriving this fall) I still marvel at this spectacular transformation. As the plane takes off, the ceiling seems so low, the sky so overcast, the future a little uncertain. And then you “pass through” and suddenly, there is nothing but blue sky. And all of those dark ominous clouds, are under your feet, a veritable sea of harmless white marshmallow fluff. “Mmmm,” you think, “not quite as bad as I thought. Quite lovely, in fact. We made it through.”
Perhaps this somewhat describes the emotions your son or daughter may be feeling right about now. Orientation is either right behind you or just ahead and Line Camp is coupled with a lot of “news”: a new roommate and a new campus in a new town and perhaps a new state. Even for the most confident of students, there is probably a tinge of Julie Andrews’ emotions playing in their hearts and minds from “The Sound of Music” as the character Maria walked out of the Abby, boarded the bus, singing with more than a little anticipation mixed with hesitation… “What will this day be like? I wonder. What does my future hold? I wonder”…
But just as Julie Andrews sang and just like the plane bursting through the clouds, those clouds, which at one time seemed so intimidating and perhaps a bit scary – the unknown almost always is, at least to some degree – there stretches before you a vast blue sky ahead (well, let’s pretend it’s green and gold! Sic’em!) with endless possibilities all waiting to be discovered and explored. “I have confidence!”
How do I know this? Because I’ve seen it over the past four years with our elder daughter, Mary Scott and now I am excited to watch it unfold for our younger daughter, Catherine, Class of 2020.
For me, I’ve always said I like having a daughter who will graduate in 2020…when all things become perfectly clear, like 20/20 vision. I feel this will be true for this class. The Class of 2020 will be a special one and many things in their world will become clear over the next four years.
They may enter feeling a bit like they are in the clouds, trying to find their way in the haze but I know from experience that there are faithful friends (called upperclassmen) ready to greet them and unlock doors and mentor this new class. Because at Baylor, we do all things – even the cloudy things – with eternity in view, knowing that all things –even the first cloudy days of freshman year – work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called. You see, doing all things with eternity in view is the Baylor key – even with the clouds – a hopeful eternity still stretches before them with endless possibilities.
The next chapter of Baylor will unfold for the class of 2020 in full force in the fall of 2016 and with it will come 3,000+ new students, ready to find out just what the Baylor difference is. They will come with high expectations, some trepidation, and a little anxious anticipation. They will bring new notebooks (the kind that need charging each night) and new sheets (the kind that never need ironing). They will come with hopes and dreams, some to be reached, others to be modified along the way as they grow up and discover new likes and loves, but all with a desire to make a difference, find their life’s calling and perhaps even a life mate. There will be friends, new and old, there will be heartbreaks and joys unimaginable that will shape young lives and grow mature young adults. There will be new beginnings that soon will become beloved old traditions that will bring happy tears to their eyes and warm memories to their hearts whenever they hear the strains… “That good old Baylor Line…”
All in a few short weeks. What will they remember from Baylor Day 1 on August 17, 2016 that will stay with them until that day Baylor Day Last in May 2020 when they walk across campus one final time donning cap and gown, preparing to say goodbye to a place they will happily call home. In a few short weeks, your son or daughter will begin what will become, in a few fleeting years, a season of life that will leave an indelible mark on their minds and hearts. It will shape them into better and stronger and wiser people. It will mark you too, as it has me. I know. I just graduated my first Baylor Bear and am preparing to head to Orientation with my second Baylor Bear next week. She can hardly wait for the chapter to begin.
Just a few weeks ago at her older sister’s graduation, I snapped a picture of the Pat Neff building and sent it to my daughter, as she prepared to fly down to meet us for graduation. I sent the picture via text with this message, “Your school. Your beautiful university is waiting for you! Hurry down to Baylor!” She replied, “Mom, “You called this ‘my university!’ For the first time, you called it mine. I can hardly wait to be there!”
And so we begin again. Baylor 2.0… New and old, mingling with goodbyes and hellos, firsts and more firsts. Steps, though timid at first, will grow confident with time and mentoring and learning life lessons will begin from those older and wiser who will walk alongside our freshman, the Class of 2020 and the beautiful transformation will begin.
Get ready Baylor! Here they come with hopes and dreams. Walk beside them upperclassmen, and teach them the way, remembering someone did that for you. And why? Because storm clouds may gather but breaking through on the other side is a vast blue sky with endless possibilities. New beginnings. At Baylor they are beginnings that start with taking the long view, one full of hope. That’s the way we do things at Baylor. It’s the way it’s always been done. It’s the way it will continue to be in cloud or sun, we always remember that just on the other side, not far at all, is an endless beautiful horizon.
And that is the Baylor difference.