This November I received an email with the subject line “Make your year-end gift to Goshen College on Giving Tuesday.” Over the next few days, as “Giving Tuesday” approached, I received more emails, asking me to donate money to GC. One of them even urged me to increase my annual giving to $1,000. I would argue, however, that over the course of my time here I’ve already been giving thousands of dollars annually to the college, albeit in the form of tuition rather than a gift, and that it is inappropriate to ask me, as a college student, to give...

By Tyson Miller • January 16, 2025 • Features

There are a few things I keep in my everyday tote bag: my Mac, some lip balm, a notepad and pen, my phone and a magazine. Always a magazine.  The ways that I can rip it, cut it, collage it, paste in, pin it and tape it are the best; I can fold over the corners for later reading. It is permanent and can’t be altered with a refresh button, just like The Record.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved a good magazine. Whether it’s a home tour in Architectural Digest, a recipe in Better Homes and...

By Sadie Brenneman • November 21, 2024 • Features

In our last issue, in the bio of the opinion “Take the world to Chili’s,” I was surprised to see that the writer, Jason Dubois, listed “writing love letters” as one of his hobbies. I’ll admit, it left me perplexed. Does he write to his significant other? His Love interests? If so, how many Love interests does he have and how often does he write them? Are they for family, friends, Loved ones? Are they for himself? But before we break that down, let’s talk about what Love is.  ChatGPT says that Love “typically involves a combination of affection, respect,...

By Charlie Aldrich • November 14, 2024 • Features

The ‘thumb area’ of Michigan was an enigma of a place to grow up. It has everything you can imagine in a midwest area: it’s small and quaint, has endless farmland, and it’s full of honest, hard-working people. But there’s one thing that stands out — it’s overwhelmingly red. I never quite understood what being “red” meant and how it affected my life. “Swing state” is another one of those terms, and it’s one that’s been thrown around since I first heard the words “Trump” and “President” in the same sentence. That’s because Michigan is currently a swing state, and...

By Charlie Aldrich • October 31, 2024 • Features

I was nervous before leaving for college. I remember asking my wise older cousin Caroline, a recent college graduate, for advice. “Before you know it,” she explained, “you’ll feel like you have two homes. When you’re back at home with your family, you’ll recognize the familiarity of your house and community. But college — your friends, your dorm, campus — will feel like home too. You’ll never feel homesick because two places feel like home.”  As a senior, I can affirm that her words are true. I sincerely feel at home at GC. The train, which used to be jarring,...

By Amelia Witmer-Rich • October 24, 2024 • Features

Since my late years in high school there has been a question that continues to leave me stumped: How do I create deeper relationships?  As someone who grew up with few words and little space to speak them, I found it hard to talk to new people or start conversations. It has been an ongoing journey learning to step out of my comfort zone and express myself easier. Whether it was with my family, on learning tours, during SST in Indonesia, or meeting new people, I struggled to ask my own questions and was fascinated with people who came up...

By Camila Pérez-Diener • October 10, 2024 • Features

In my time at Goshen College, I believe I experienced a prominent shift within the GC student body: party culture.  We do not congregate on the weekends like we used to, for better or worse. Currently, most on-campus students spend weekends together in their same friend groups, huddled in dorm rooms and apartments. It’s cliquey and exclusive, but not intentionally. I think we just don’t know how else to gather. Some will invite a larger group to their spaces, but that risks noise complaints and violations. It hasn’t always been this way, though. For much of GC’s history, students, especially...

By Sadie Brenneman • October 3, 2024 • Features

As I enter senior year and put into perspective the memories I have made here, the word nostalgia comes to mind. Nostalgia allows us to put on rose-colored glasses as we re-experience events from our past, especially those that we associate with meaningful times and places in our lives.  In my work with marketing and design, I’ve realized that this wistful affection for the past encourages brands to reimagine designs from old releases. This new focus has been very prominent in sports marketing and can also be seen in the latest fashion trends. Brands doing this acknowledges our, the consumers’,...

By Isaac Sawatzky • September 19, 2024 • Features

I was at church last December when an older man asked me what I wanted to be someday. I said confidently, “I’m studying journalism at Goshen College.” He chuckled. “Are you going to write a book or what?” he asked me. I concealed my irritation and laughed. I didn’t bother to explain that I wasn’t drawn to reporting or even book writing, but loved the strategy and problem-solving of public relations and marketing and ultimately hoped to pursue that as a career path.  If you asked me right now what I wanted to do in the future, that’s what I...

By Sadie Brenneman • September 12, 2024 • Features

“The grass isn’t greener on the other side,”  That’s what I heard from my former coach after I told him I was transferring to Goshen College.   Now, before we dive into that lovely, totally optimistic quote, I’d like to give some context. To start, school sucks. At least for me it does. For as long as I can remember I’ve always struggled. Everything from the ‘simple’ concepts of algebra to the early mornings scrambling to the bus. As hard as that was, though, the hardest part was working with teachers or any sort of authoritative figures. Words such as...

By Charlie Aldrich • September 5, 2024 • Features

What a ride it’s been. There’s so much I have yet to say, and so much I want to say. So much gratitude: to the friends that have kept me going through endless late-night study sessions and Taco Bell runs; to my professors, the advisers and mentors that they are; and especially to the student-athletes that have given me a space to act like a child again, and jump, dance and sing my way through four years in the student section. I don’t have space for everything I want to say, though, and you all don’t need to read my...

By Daniel James • April 11, 2024 • Features

It’s been nearly a year since I got back from Ecuador, and I still think about it practically daily. I’ve done a lot in my four years here at Goshen, but I found SST unquestionably the most impactful experience. I have so much I want to say about it, and I just don’t know where to start. I could talk about the language barrier, which was super difficult at times (such as when I thought my host mom was screaming at me “HOLD ON” to a half-ton cow dragging me face-first through a field, when she was actually saying “LET...

By Daniel James • April 4, 2024 • Features

From age 6 to age 11, before trends had entered my mind, before I was aware of what was cool or uncool, in style or out of style, I wore outrageous things: psychedelic print shorts with a neon tank top, long striped rainbow socks and a white faux fur vest, to share a glimpse. One day on a hike in the woods with my family, I even wore a strapless tank top, bell-bottom jeans and a skinny but long shimmery scarf… On a hike… Now, far from the days of clueless bliss, we are constantly bombarded with opinions on what...

By Sadie Brenneman • March 21, 2024 • Features

“I’ve thought about dying, a few times.” As the monologue continued, it became harder and harder to breathe. That’s something really special about Goshen Monologues. Now, I’m a male, and I can’t say that I identify with — or fully understand — the feminine experience, and not all of the stories speak to me. And that’s OK! I am not the reason this is happening, and it’s not something made for me. But some of the stories, the emotions, the experiences that were expressed in Monologues on Sunday night really rang true to me — and are the reasons for...

By Daniel James • March 14, 2024 • Features

Lately, there’s been a push against “toxic” masculinity, defined by traits including but not limited to sexism, aggression and social dominance. Good. Let’s chuck all of these into the garbage. Another long-standing and often-criticized feature is stoicism: men can’t be emotionally vulnerable. While I also despise this concept, I am also tired of the notion that this is just a man’s issue — it isn’t.  Yes, it’s a terrible expectation for us, but other genders struggle to express their emotions, too. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, “female hysteria” was a widespread disorder on the basis of women having feelings;...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • March 7, 2024 • Features