Dear Friends:
It’s on all of our minds: What will life look like when we finally (hopefully, soon) emerge from the Covid-19 crisis? How will things be different? How will they go back to how they used to be? Have you given much thought to considering how your life could not just be different, but better post-pandemic?
One small lesson for me: I have no intention in returning to always, what I call, “yessing it.” That’s where you say yes to everything. Yes to that meeting. Yes to that dinner. Yes to that trip. Yes to that unhealthy friendship. Covid has given me perspective on what kind of life could be possible because — for so much of it — “yes” wasn’t always a possible answer.
I’ve read where Oprah Winfrey said you’ll never see her in high heels again. I’ve heard friends say they’re not going back to an in-person office. You might know someone who lost a job but who is now full-force-into-the-wind in a new role, a new business, or a new passion.
Certainly we’ve all been through a traumatic experience with Covid. We’ve all lost loved ones. All lost out on a year of life, a year of school, or a year of opportunity. There has been pain. There has been deep, deep pain. We should not gloss over that. We should not forget what we experienced, what we struggled through, or what we learned.
That’s what this issue is about. There is pain in this world. Different kinds of pain — like Laura Hilton Hallmon’s unexpected term as president, like Kaye Robinson Callaway’s fall and injury, like the harrowing story we’ve reprinted from 1960 of a mom struggling to finish her college degree, like Isaiah Odajima’s family and personal crisis. Like maybe the pain you, your friends, your family have experienced in the past year. We all must go through hard times.
I chose this issue’s title as “The Adversity Advantage” for that reason. Adversity is something we all face. Sometimes, though, you find people who take the adversity of a moment and use it to face life from a different, better perspective.
We should not neglect the pain we’ve experienced in the past year-and-a-half. It is real and we are worthy of being allowed to hurt and heal from it. But we also should not let it define us. It should not limit us.
So, how will your life be different from the adversity you’ve experienced? Here’s to finding your own adversity advantage!
Yours,
Jon
Jonathon Platt (‘16, MA ‘19)
Editor-in-chief, Baylor Line Magazine
*Originally Published: Fall 2021 Baylor Line Magazine
