By Frances George

I’ve sent care packages multiple times to Waco, Texas, for the last four years to our youngest daughter. And before that, for six years, to our first Baylor daughter while she earned her two Baylor degrees. I actually have an entire closet in my home full of boxes for this singular purpose: care packages! Today, that closet is empty.

You see, today the last delivery to our last student in college was made. And this delivery was sent to our home in Raleigh, North Carolina, not Waco, Texas. Catherine, like every other college senior at Baylor, is finishing college online at Mom and Dad’s kitchen table. This was not our plan. But God…

The label on the package says it all, “Fragile. Handle with Care.” When we sent our youngest to Baylor four years ago, 1,200 miles away, she was our fragile baby girl. Today, she has been delivered with care, back to us: a Baylor University graduate (in 15 days), a young woman who loves Jesus and is valued by so many friends, faculty and administrators — and not because of her parents or her last name or her lineage, but because she is Catherine George, Baylor student and soon alumna, who has proven herself in the academic arena as well as the social sphere and, perhaps most importantly, in demonstration of her spiritual depth. And much of that took place over four years at this place called Baylor.

So thank you, Baylor, for “delivering with care” this most treasured and exquisitely transformed package — our daughter, strong and confident and accomplished, a beautiful reflection of the University we love and have come to call our own. 3 degrees, 2 daughters, 1 amazing university.

Catherine, like all of the Class of 2020… YOU are The Baylor Difference.

P.S. This is the last delivery for college, but the silver lining to this entire semester is that Catherine will be back in Waco this summer, beginning her post graduate work. At where else? Baylor! I guess I’ll just keep on collecting those boxes with joy! Sic’em, Catherine!