For the RecordFor the Record is a weekly editorial usually written by the current executive editor of The Record. It may also be written by other Record editors.
For the Record is a weekly editorial usually written by the current executive editor of The Record. It may also be written by other Record editors.
March 16, 2023
Traveling to find my why
Last May, I traveled to London for my Goshen College Study-Service term (SST) requirement. I was ecstatic in the planning stage — creating vision boards, tailoring music playlists and even watching “Notting Hill,” starring my favorite romantic-comedy queen, Julia Roberts, more than once. Of course, my stomach was in knots up until departure. It was the first time in my 23 years I would be traveling abroad. From the bus ride to the airport and onward, all my peers seemed to know what they were doing: navigating the TSA process, checking bags and understanding where to go. Unfortunately, I did...
February 23, 2023
The pressure of the pen
This week, I struggled with deciding on a topic for this editorial. Everything that came to mind felt intense or personal. Don’t get me wrong – there is a lot to be said – but I find that I am censoring myself out of protecting other people’s comfort. I wish that I could take these editorials as an opportunity to write a pretty little piece on something light and beautiful. As a first-generation Latina college student, I am finding that this is impossible. I am constantly aware of the influence that comes with serving as an executive editor. I have...
February 16, 2023
On Black history month
It’s Black History Month, a time dedicated to celebrating iconic figures that left their footprint on American soil. I’ll admit that I have mixed emotions about this month. While I’m grateful, I can’t help but focus on the performative activism and repetitive stories told that come along with February. Simply put, performative activism is when someone engages in a cause to build their social standing rather than from genuine commitment. This form of activism is most notable through movements like Black Lives Matter and Black History Month. On social media, I am bombarded by people and companies showcasing their surface-level...
February 2, 2023
In defense of the English major
In the past decade, private institutions have gone bankrupt due to the lack of interest in the humanities and a liberal arts education. English departments across the country are currently dealing with low enrollment rates At Goshen College, the incoming class of 2022 has 9 declared English majors and 5 writing majors. There are 109 declared nursing majors and 65 business majors. This distribution is similar nationally, even among Ivy League institutions. The rise of anti-intellectualism is to blame for this. By that, I am referring to the general sentiment of anger, mockery and dismissal against people who read and...
January 26, 2023
Life lessons from children
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...
January 19, 2023
The defining decade
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...
December 1, 2022
A love letter to a small college newspaper
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,...
November 10, 2022
The weight of our futures
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...
November 3, 2022
Go vote
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...
October 28, 2022
Corporations are capitalizing on mental illness
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...
October 13, 2022
Why communication matters
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...
October 7, 2022
Welcome home
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...
September 30, 2022
Art in isolation
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...
September 15, 2022
I didn’t go on SST
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...
September 8, 2022
Restaurant reflections
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,...