Turning anger into action sounds catchy, but it certainly is not easy. As I sit down to write an editorial week after week, the first thing I want to do is express my anger; each week, our 45th president and his administration gives me something new that reignites my anger. In previous weeks, I’ve decided to hold back, to try and give some general thoughts on how to deal with stress and frustrations amidst our current political climate. But this week, I need to be blunt. I need to be specific. On Tuesday, Feb. 7, Betsy DeVos, who according to...

By Maddie Birky • February 9, 2017 • Features

In fast-paced American culture, stress is everywhere: controversial Facebook posts, traffic, messy roommates, not to mention assignments, grades, work, plans for summer or life after graduation. Many times, we barely manage to handle stress. With the dark, gloomy Indiana winter and rapidly shifting political climate in the U.S., we may find it even harder to cope. Stress manifests itself in extremes: overeating or undereating, lack of sleep or oversleeping, etc. Sometimes we withdraw from others; other times we lash out at small irritations. For me, the day before the Record publication (Wednesday, or, as the staff and I call it,...

By Maddie Birky • February 2, 2017 • Features

This past Friday, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated and became our 45th president. Also, this past Friday was the one-year anniversary of my leaving to study abroad in Seville, Spain for five and a half months. One of my first thoughts was how incredibly fast time goes. My second thought was how much I missed everything about the city: its sights, its smells, its familiarity. But the third and most important thought was how incredibly glad I was to have stepped, flown rather, that far out of my comfort zone. I arrived in Seville with nothing but a suitcase, a...

By Maddie Birky • January 26, 2017 • Features

Welcome to the first Record issue of 2017. By now, I hope everyone has settled into their new schedules and found a routine. In college, each semester feels as if it’s a school year of its own, with completely new classes, professors and seasons. With the new year comes different responsibilities. My biggest new challenge will be taking on the role of editor-in-chief of this newspaper. Because of the brilliant work my now associate editor and friend Jordan Waidelich did last semester, I have some big shoes to fill. Soon, tomorrow actually, we will see shifts happen on both a...

By Maddie Birky • January 19, 2017 • Features

Well Goshen College, here we are. This is issue number 12, and my final issue as the editor-in-chief of The Record. You might be thinking “But won’t you do this next semester?” No, I will no longer be the editor-in-chief; Maddie Birky will be in charge next semester. Let’s keep moving on. To be honest, I felt like this day was never going to come. As the semester started, I was nervously wringing my hands, wondering who put me in charge of a newspaper, and 12 issues seemed daunting. I didn’t think there was any way I could possibly pull...

By Jordan Waidelich • December 8, 2016 • Features

Listening. It’s something that’s been challenging me lately. I love to talk, I love to write and I love to be heard. I don’t always listen the best. But I’ve come to realize that I can’t expect to be heard if I don’t try to listen to the people around me. I’m working on it. When I make a conscious effort to let other people talk more, I find that I enjoy listening. I enjoy hearing the things that drive people’s passions. I love it when their eyes get wide with excitement because someone took the time to hear what...

By Jordan Waidelich • December 1, 2016 • Features

Thanksgiving is a week away, and it feels like time has flown by. It feels like just yesterday it was August, and I was nervously fretting about how I could possibly even try to run a newspaper. (Well, this is issue number 10, and I feel like I’ve done an average job.) Right now, tensions are still running high in the week following the election. Some people are disappointed, angry, terrified and upset; others are excited, happy, glad and looking forward to the next four years. I find myself in the middle, caught between being terrified and realizing I can’t...

By Jordan Waidelich • November 17, 2016 • Features

I sit in front of a blank page, racking my brain for what I could possibly say following this election. Some people are shocked, others are terrified and there are some that are satisfied with the outcome. And right now I don’t quite know what to say. It wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for, but here we are. And I keep going back to this idea of showing up. In convocation on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to share how I will respond to this outcome. I focused on how we as a nation need to have an...

By Jordan Waidelich • November 10, 2016 • Features

The election is less than a week away, and this unsettling political season is going to be over. Finally. Now the political ads full of hate can be replaced by Christmas ads full of cheer because it’s the best time of the year. (And who doesn’t celebrate a holiday an entire two months beforehand?) Unfortunately, even though the campaign season will be over, we can’t ignore all of the pain and anger that it has brought to the forefront of our nation and just skip happily into Thanksgiving. At this point, it doesn’t really matter who wins the election because...

By Jordan Waidelich • November 3, 2016 • Features

The final debate has aired; I’ve cast my vote. Most people’s minds are made up at this point, and there doesn’t seem much else for me to do but wait for the results of the election. It’s almost like this tumultuous political season is over in my mind. I wish that was close to the truth. While my part in this process has been completed, it’s still ever present in the news and social media. And it makes me cringe when I hear how little people trust newspapers and the journalists who are working hard to fact-check the candidates, yet...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 27, 2016 • Features

As fall break is quickly approaching, I find myself overjoyed at the prospect of having no responsibilities. But I’m also excited for fall break for another reason: self-care. The idea of self-care is to take time out of the many things on your to-do list to intentionally take care of your mental, emotional and physical health. A 2014 Penn State University study found that anxiety was the leading mental health issue that college students faced, passing depression. According to the 2015 National College Health Assessment survey by the American College Health Association, almost one in six college students was diagnosed...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 13, 2016 • Features

I have never been good at dealing with change as it happens. It gives me a bad feeling and makes me feel sad inside. I don’t really know why, that’s just how it’s always been. Last weekend, my sister got married, and I wasn’t emotionally prepared for that to happen. Talk about a big change. It got me thinking about how I have always handled change. I’m not her number one anymore, and we no longer share a last name. That has been tough to deal with for this change-hater. But, she’s not moving to another state, and she’s still...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 6, 2016 • Features

As I sat down to watch the presidential debate this past Monday night, I couldn’t help but feel excited. With the level of unrest in our country and the stark contrast between the candidates, this election feels even more important than those previous. (Although, this is the first presidential election I’ve been able to vote in, so maybe that’s part of it.) Either way, I was so eager that it felt like I was getting ready to watch a hyped-up sporting event. Unfortunately, the debate fell short of the hype, and it left me with an uneasy feeling. The main...

By Jordan Waidelich • September 29, 2016 • Features

When I announced that I was going into journalism, people told me that it was a dying profession. They conveniently forgot to tell me that journalism was a thankless profession. I know the media isn’t blameless, but it tends to take more heat than it deserves. Take the current National Anthem situation for instance. The media is continually focusing more on the simple of act of Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the National Anthem, rather than the reason he is kneeling. Headline after headline explains that Kaepernick is kneeling, but the articles only briefly mention that he’s doing it in protest...

By Jordan Waidelich • September 22, 2016 • Features

Here are two things you need to know about me: I’m extremely passionate about depression/suicide awareness and prevention, and I love the United States women’s national soccer team. Last week was World Suicide Prevention Week, a painfully, beautiful week when light is shed on an issue that affects most everyone, whether through personal struggles or a friend of a friend who was lost. It’s an important week to be sure. But what struck me the most about this week was the number of well-known people using their platforms to shine light into the darkness surrounding mental illness. As a person...

By Jordan Waidelich • September 15, 2016 • Features