Baylor Mugshots: Swanson Traylor

 

Our latest Mugshot contributor is Swanson Traylor, a freshman BIC-er with two majors and one epic positive attitude.  I lured him to the library with promises of free Starbucks, and then attacked him with a list of Big Bad Baylor Questions™.

“First of all,” I said.  “I know you haven’t been here long, but is there a Baylor memory that sticks out in your mind more than any other?

Swanson thought over the past seven weeks of his life, and then admitted that, if anything, his greatest Baylor memory must have been his very first World Cultures lecture with Dr. Long.  “He went on this long analogy about quests, and about how BIC was a quest,” Swanson said, laying the scene.  “He is such a great speaker—I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”

We agreed that all Dr. Long had to do to get us to weep with patriotism was open his mouth and spill something about the weather.  After a few more minutes of gushing over how much we loved our BIC profs (“I have Hinden for Cultures!” Swanson said.  “He’s the one that throws the beach ball the first day of class!”), we moved on.

“So I guess you’re liking BIC so far, huh?” I asked.

Swanson said that he definitely was.  “It still seems ridiculous that I’m required to do all these things that I love to do,” he told me.  Like most BIC-ers, Swanson is a man of many interests, with majors in English and history.  “BIC is everything that I like all melded together,” he said, shaking his head like he could not believe his luck.

I asked him what he would major in if not English and history, and Swanson said that there was actually a very real probability that he would switch.  “I’m really interested in film,” he said.  “Being a director would be really cool.  The professional writing major looks awesome too.”

I freaked out a little when he said that and tried to win him over to our pro-writing ranks (“Join us,” I hissed).  He said he would think about it.

Finally, I asked him the last question on my list.  “Can you describe Baylor to me in three words?”

Swanson mulled that over, and then said, “Welcoming, rigorous, and—um, surprising, I think.”  He said that before coming to Baylor, he had assumed all the stereotypes surrounding tidy little Baptist universities would be true.  “They’re not,” he said.  “Especially in BIC, it’s really diverse.”  And with that, we saluted each other and went our separate ways.

BIC definitely affects your Baylor experience—and your life, if we are all being completely honest—in irreversible ways.  Dr. Long is right: our education is a quest, and we are all adventurers bound together in pursuit of the best versions of ourselves, and the best version of the world we live in.

Chelsea Teague is a junior majoring in professional writing.