Being the oldest sister of five has come with many responsibilities — for example, babysitting and bottle-making. Then there are bigger, heavier aspects, like being there to help them navigate their first break-up and holding back the “I told you so’s,” but also knowing when it is better to let them figure out life on their own. Having your younger siblings watch your every move and attempt to emulate you can also be a little suffocating. But, I have also found this to be encouraging at times. Then there are the minor, frivolous things like borrowing each other’s clothes without...

By Jakyra Green • January 26, 2023 • Features

Even before I turned 20, I was obsessed with consuming content about the glorified decade that is the 20s. I loved watching YouTube videos titled things like, “20 Things I Learned in My 20s,” or “Read These Books if You Are in Your 20s.” In everything I was consuming, there was one book that kept coming up: “The Defining Decade” by Meg Jay.   Her book is about how to spend your 20s based on science. Jay worked as a clinical psychologist interviewing hundreds of people in their 30s and 40s on why they weren’t satisfied with their lives – most...

By Mariela Esparza • January 19, 2023 • Features

When I first came to Goshen College as a naive, anxious first-year, I had zero intentions of pursuing journalism. It wasn’t even on my radar — I was too concerned with making friends and understanding my music theory assignments. Journalism was something that I had simply never considered for myself.  Now, as I write my last editorial as executive editor of The Record, it feels a little surreal to look back on that first year, when The Record played no role in my life. After a semester of planning, editing and thinking about The Record pretty much all the time,...

By Augusta Nafziger • December 1, 2022 • Features

I’ve always been a procrastinator. Projects and papers on my to-do list often get pushed to the day before they’re due, under the pretense of me “working best at night” (I don’t) and “desperation is the best motivation” (it’s not).  This year, the thing that I would like to put off the most is also the thing that is too important to procrastinate — my future.  I’m 22 now, and every time I’ve told people that I’m a senior this year, it feels wrong, like I’m making some grave error in the chronology of my life. In my mind, I’m...

By Augusta Nafziger • November 10, 2022 • Features

I mailed my absentee ballot back to Virginia this week. It took all of ten minutes to open, fill out, seal and drop off in the blue mailbox outside of the Union Building.  In a country where voting rights continue to be infringed upon, I’m lucky to have it that easy.  At first glance, voter turnout in the United States seems stronger than ever. According to the Pew Research Center, 62.8% of the voting-age population voted in the 2020 presidential election, while 47.5% of the voting-age population voted in our last midterm elections in 2018 — the highest voter turnout...

By Augusta Nafziger • November 3, 2022 • Features

I started going to therapy the summer before my junior year. At the end of my first session, my therapist told me, without hesitation or fanfare, that I had OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).  OCD is characterized by unwanted thoughts or fears (obsessions) that causes one to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions ). As far as mental disorders go, it’s not uncommon; nearly 2% of the world’s population has OCD.  The best way I can describe my own experience with OCD is that it can make anything and everything into a question — and that question is often, “what if?” Harmless, everyday actions...

By Augusta Nafziger • October 28, 2022 • Features

I wasn’t always going to be a communication major. Originally, I was going to major in biology, go to medical school and do something in orthopedics. It wasn’t that I was passionate about science but that I wanted to help people, and the idea of being a doctor appealed to me. It wasn’t until I took chemistry II in high school that I realized what a bad idea that might be for me. I didn’t like chemistry at all, and I realized that I should probably go into something that I enjoyed, so I decided to switch midway through my...

By Tyson Miller • October 13, 2022 • Features

This weekend is Homecoming, which means there will be a lot of not-so-new faces joining us on campus over the next few days. Alumni will participate in class reunions, tours of new facilities, and hopefully many good meals (I hear there will be food trucks on Saturday).  In honor of the occasion, I ventured downtown to Fables Books on Tuesday to look through some of Goshen College’s old yearbooks. I wanted to find pictures of my grandparents from their time at Goshen, mostly so I could see my grandma’s ‘60s updos, but also for a chance to look back on...

By Augusta Nafziger • October 7, 2022 • Features

After two and a half years of dodging COVID-19, I finally tested positive on Tuesday of last week. In some ways, it was great timing — we didn’t have an issue of The Record coming out, so I didn’t have to scramble to have the paper ready over Zoom. In other ways, it was less great — I missed my senior Kick-Off, and I had a raging fever for about three days. Not fun.  Of course, it wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things (thanks to vaccines). All I had to do was lug my belongings up...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 30, 2022 • Features

One of the things I’ve been struggling with this semester is the awareness that, when I graduate in the spring, I won’t have completed a full Study-Service Term semester.  My requirements will have been met — don’t worry, faculty advisors — but I won’t have the experience of spending an entire semester in another country. And that feels strange, because SST has always felt like something of an inevitability for me.  When I committed to GC my senior year of high school, I told several GC alumni at my church that I would be attending. Their initial responses usually involved...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 15, 2022 • Features

Like many college students, my main priority this summer was making money. To be specific — making money to fund my college tuition, to start saving for post-college life, and to cover the cost of the many overpriced lattes I will be drinking this semester.  So, I got a job serving at my aunt’s restaurant in my hometown of Harrisonburg, Virginia.  I thought it would be a fun, relaxing way to spend my summer. How hard could it be to carry out food on a tray and make sure I didn’t spill coffee on customers?  Over the next three months,...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 8, 2022 • Features

With graduation two weeks away, I am down to the final boxes on my checklist: one more speech to perform, one more issue of The Record to publish (this one!), one more May Term course to complete. My days in Goshen feel — suddenly — very numbered.  To process this realization, a few days ago, I did what I often do when I need some time to think: I walked down the millrace to the Larry Beachy Classified Forest.   I scrambled over logs on a path I’ve walked more times than I can remember in the 14 years I’ve called...

By Sierra Ross Richer • April 14, 2022 • Features

My dad is Jerrell Ross Richer, Goshen’s curly-haired econ prof. I’ve often been asked what it’s like being Jerrell’s daughter. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned from my dad over the years.     1) If your dream is to travel, travel. My dad is currently in Kauai, Hawaii with my mom, brother and grandmother. This isn’t surprising. When my dad has dreams, he makes them happen. What’s his secret? Hours of behind-the-scenes brainstorming, researching and unabashedly calling every number on the website.     2) Plant fruit trees. My parents have lived in nine houses since they got...

By Sierra Ross Richer • March 31, 2022 • Features

Sunday afternoon was so sunny and warm, I couldn’t help but set my homework aside for a while, pull on my favorite orange biking bibs and grab my bike off its hook in the garage.   It was the perfect day for a ride, but before I started, I gave my bike my usual inspection. The tires were full — good — but the frame was spotted with flecks of mud from the few slushy rides I’d done over the winter, and the drivetrain and chain were full of black gunk (fun fact, a bike chain is actually silver when it’s...

By Sierra Ross Richer • March 25, 2022 • Features

I’ve been struggling with productivity this week.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to come back to my room after a full day of classes, work and rehearsals, only to have to spend time on homework for the rest of the evening. I don’t want to work on assignments in my free time; I’d rather get food with friends, or hang out with my housemates. And, to be completely honest, sometimes I just want to collapse on the couch and scroll through Twitter to my heart’s content.  I think one reason I’ve been feeling so unproductive is the hour of...

By Augusta Nafziger • March 17, 2022 • Features