Dear Bears,

Just like you, I began this past Fall excited about what the new school year would bring. Just like you, I LOVE being a part of the Baylor Family. I love being on campus. I love being around you guys, getting to know some of you personally, getting to be a part of your lives, and knowing that the work that I do contributes to the experiences that will be transformational and memorable in each of your lives. 

I've seen some posts on social media that insinuate that faculty or staff at colleges like Baylor might be happy about the move to online education. Trust me. This is a million miles from the truth. I don't particularly like the summer time on campus because, well, I spend it without seeing you guys every day. The wonderful men and women who work for Baylor truly love what we do, and we did NOT want this to happen. Just as one example among hundreds, I'm going to miss Diadeloso as much as you (maybe more!)

In fact, we are heartbroken for you. Just like you, in our personal lives, with our own families, we are all trying to figure out what life looks like in this weird time. The challenges of living in this time and trying to figure out our own lives don't diminish or minimize the tears that I've personally seen come to the eyes of staff who know how this impacts you directly. YOU are why we do the work we do. 

I have some personal advice for you during this time. I hope you find it helpful. 

1. Don't freak out! This is a bad situation, and our country, our economy, in fact our entire human civilization may look different when we get through this. BUT WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS. 

2. Be a leader. Your current generation, Generation Z, is one of the most amazing our country has seen in a century. Experts believe that you are a revival of "The Greatest Generation" which is the one that fought in World War II. You are thrifty. You are strong. You value experiences and relationships over possessions. And this is your first real test as a generation. I know this situation impacted your plans. It's time to show the world what you are made of, it's time to lead. Be the example! Social distance. Stay at home. This is a hard test, but you will do it. We'll do it together!

2. Speaking of the older generations, I'd like to make a personal recommendation. FaceTime with your grandparents (if you still have them) during this time at home. Do it daily if you can! Remind them to stay isolated for their own protection. Tell them you love them. But use the time to ask them about challenges our country has faced that they lived through. They were likely alive when JFK was assassinated. They lived through racial segregation and violence, the Vietnam War, economic collapses during the 70s and 80s. They saw Reagan get shot. Some of them were even alive when polio and smallpox were rampant in society. We as a nation have faced huge challenges and come out the other side stronger. Your grandparents can provide historical perspective for unprecedented times. Just ask. If you're scared, tell them so. But again, don't forget to tell them you love them. 

3. Give your parents (or other folks you are now living with) a LOT of grace. There's a good chance you are back home at this point. Your 'rents are probably going to drive you a bit nuts. You've been living on your own while at school. Your entire worldview has changed, but their's hasn't changed as much. To them, they are still "Mom and Dad" and you are still "their kid." You being home is going to make them slip back into old patterns and behaviors. Respect them. Love them. Hug them. Let them just BE in your life. Take this opportunity to just BE in theirs. Later in life, you may look back on this time as a blessing, a moment of togetherness that you wouldn't have had otherwise. I know. I know. After 20+ years of being with them, they can be a little lame sometimes. It won't be long before you miss it. Trust me on this. Also, don't overlook the fact that times like this can scare them too. We often see our parents as indestructible and unphaseable. Give them the grace to be human and show them how incredible you are by being your family's rock. 

4. Be cool with slowing down. Your entire life to this point has been defined by movement. You have been in motion for all of it. Information has flown at you from all directions, 24/7. Slow down. Use this time to do some of your own "experiments in chill." Disconnect from the media. Catch up on sleep. Go for a TON of long walks. (Of course, social distance when you do) but use the time to clear your head, pray, relax. Maybe for the first time, listen to the songs of the birds and leaves rustling in the trees. Breathe in deep. Your life may not slow down this much again for a while after we get through this. And we WILL get through this time.

5. Don't neglect your studies. I earned my MBA in an online program. There are aspects of it that are easier than being in class. There are also aspects of it that are a LOT harder. The biggest challenge is self-discipline to get the work done. It's easier to be accountable for your time when there is a class attendance policy in person. Online, you are largely on your own and it is SUPER easy to get behind. DON'T GET BEHIND! Prioritize and get the job done. 

6. CHECK YOUR EMAIL! I know you guys. Most of you have not developed good email habits. Regardless of what you may think, email is NOT going away. It is the standard tool in business communication worldwide, and you need to know how to "email right." Check it at least several times per day, READ IT ALL, delete what isn't important, but keep anything from the university. Your instructors and staff are intentionally trying to not inundate you with communications right now. So every email is probably an important one. READ THEM.

7. If you are in your senior year, know that this is not the end of your Baylor journey. This is definitely not how you wanted your senior year to end. To be frank, it's not fair. It's REALLY not fair. You didn't have any warning, and it's likely you are grieving as a result. You have every right to feel all of that. I've been here at BU for four years now. This is my senior year too in a sense. You guys are the students who began classes the same time I began working for Baylor. BU20 is special to me and it always will be! SO. With that in mind, make plans now to come back to campus anytime you want to once we are through this crazy time. I mean that. Baylor is your university, and you are family. Your daily lives will look different, but Baylor is part of who you are now. Come back. Often. I'm praying that we'll see you guys in August for a "better late than never" commencement. I can only imagine what a party it'll be. For this reason alone, we need to sic this virus and get back to some normal ASAP. I'm social distancing partly for you, seniors. I'm gonna do my part in this to help get back to being closer than 6 feet from you. 

8. Stay connected. You guys are "digital natives." You've never lived a day without the internet. Use your tools to stay connected to each other and to Baylor University. If you don't already, follow every BU account on social media you can. We are all here still posting content to bring a sense of "normal" back to life in this weird time. 

Post lots of pics to Instagram of what you are up to while social distancing. I want to see. Let's make Instagram more real! Stop trying to curate your feed. Let's see some daily life shots even if daily life is a bit different right now. 

I love you guys! You make my daily work one of the greatest honors. Your kindness, strength, and resilience give me constant sources of hope in a crazy world. Don't hesitate to reach out. Email me anytime. DM me on Instagram. Even just to say "Hi." If you are bored, we can sit and debate existential philosophy or which of the Star Wars movies should be removed from the canon. I'm here. 

As always, Sic'em Bears, and God Bless! 

​Tom Barnard
Assistant Director for Student Outreach & Engagement
Baylor University
​[email protected]
Instagram: @TomAtBaylor

​This post is more "Tom" than it is "Baylor." We'll just forget the title of my blog for a moment and think of this as "Tom At Chicago." I've been thinking a lot about this shot lately. I am in the process of compiling a new section of this website all about iPhone Photography, and this shot keeps coming into my mind. It's my favorite photo I've ever taken. I'd like to tell you the story of this photo. Before we start, scroll back up and stare at it for a second. To me, it's mesmerizing. I just get lost in it. Maybe it's just me. 

In the Summer of 2012, I found myself in Chicago. I was working for a university that sent me there to a Noel Levitz conference about university admissions marketing. I traveled there with some friends from work and thoroughly enjoyed myself and the conference. 

Chicago was ungodly hot that particular week in late July. My buddies and I had galavanted around the University of Chicago campus for a day and almost died of heat exhaustion at least a dozen times. We got very little rest on this trip as we packed a ton of sightseeing in between conference sessions. So the time that we did get to crash in our hotel rooms was spent entirely zonked. 

I think it was midway through the week that I had gone to sleep one night only to wake up a couple hours later to an immense thunderstorm that almost shook me out of my bed. Since I was wide awake, I went to the window of the 7th floor of the Warwick Allerton Hotel and looked up Michigan Avenue only to see the most magical thing I'd ever seen out a hotel window. The storm was moving literally in waves off of Lake Michigan down the avenue. Even at about 4:30 in the morning, the city was beginning to wake up as shift workers moved to and fro their responsibilities. It was intoxicating to watch the traffic move through the aerosolized lake as lightning lit up the entire hotel room every few seconds. 

That was a moment that I wanted to record. I wanted to save it and savor it. So I grabbed my iPhone and held it in front of the window and snapped the photo you see above. I immediately looked at the tiny screen on my iPhone 5 and said "Well, that's not good. All the lights are getting obscured by the water on the window." So I did what you could only do in a 100+ year old hotel...I opened the window. And I got this:

I shot several dozen photos like this. I quickly closed the window, addressed the fact that I was then drenched. I changed my shirt and crawled back into bed. Here is the critical part of this story. I sat there and scrolled through what I'd just shot and considered for a moment deleting the "bad" shots. Bear in mind, that iPhones at the time didn't come with a ton of storage space, so deleting excess photos was standard practice. But I was tired. It was still before 5 in the morning. The storm had kept me up. And I figured I could just delete them later. 

I forgot to delete them. Fast forward a few days, and I was sitting at my computer at home digging through my photos of the trip...going photo by photo and remembering the fun of the trip when I arrived at the point of the storm. I lingered for a few seconds on the "bad" photo before moving onto the "good" ones. And my heart sunk. "The good ones are not good." They were gray and boring and they didn't give me any sense of that experience at all. As fate would have it, the last photo that I left on my computer screen was the "bad" shot with all the light blur. And I kept walking past it that night. And eventually when I did, I thought, "well, that's not THAT bad." That feeling moved to "I kind of like what's happening in this photo." to "I remember this moment so vividly." to "I love the play of light...the combination of blues and yellows...the motion of the photo....the life of the city." 

Wait a minute? I had just fallen in love with a mistake. It wasn't previsualized. In fact, I'm sure it breaks all kinds of rules of not shooting through a pane of glass obscured by a rainstorm. I learned a handful of things through this experience.

1. The first was to chuck the "rules" (or at least the ones I assumed existed) out the window.

2. The second thing I learned was that I should never delete photos from my phone until I'm home looking at them on a large screen.

3. The third thing I learned was that it's wholly possible to create your favorite image EVER completely by accident.

4. The last thing I learned was the value of an image encapsulating an emotion of a moment.

This image, to me, is personal. And it may not be to anyone else who views it, but even to those who weren't there (all of you) I believe that it far more successfully captures the motion and emotion of a moment of life in the city during the storm when compared to the second shot above. 

In my little book on iPhone photography, I am spending a large amount of time talking about being intentional when shooting. It's a bit ironic and possibly hypocritical that my favorite shot I've ever taken was a complete (almost deleted) accident. Or maybe it's just a reminder that sometimes magic only happens in life when we slow down enough, breathe, and just let the universe dictate what happens in front of our lens.