Taylor, what do you honor most: your ‘culture’ or one another?
Make no mistake — I myself delight in the humor, joy and wholesome nature of our traditions.
Yet the attitude we carry in our campus culture matters.
Taylor is an extremely relational place. Our traditions connect us with one another and facilitate belonging, Skip Trudeau, vice president for Student Development & Intercollegiate Athletics, director of the master of arts in higher education program, said.
David Neel (‘15), Samuel Morris hall director, lived on The Brotherhood during his undergraduate at Taylor. Many of the traditions he engaged in allowed him to build stronger relationships with fellow students, he said.
Diana Verhagen (‘12), hall director for on-campus apartments, agreed. She said Taylor culture, broadly, is defined by students who desire to be in community — brushing your teeth and living alongside one another.
However, as many college students are still in the cognitive developmental stages of their lives, sometimes they may not think of all the outcomes of their choices in campus traditions, Neel said.
Whenever we participate in an activity or think of playing a prank, it’s worth asking ourselves if any part of that might negatively affect someone whether it be a fellow student, facilities, housekeeping or Upland residents.
“What I encourage any of the guys (I oversee) is (to think how their) actions have negative consequences on other people,’” Neel said. “...If your (actions) are creating more work for another person, or embarrassing another person, or shaming someone, that’s where you need to find the line.”
Sometimes we embed ourselves so deeply into our traditions and the flurry of it all that we often get lost in the moment. We get swept away by groupthink when instead, we need to slow down and think first.
A part of living in community means considering others’ needs alongside our own, Verhagen said.
It’s also crucial to remember to keep a light-hearted attitude in the midst of it. While any singular tradition may not be inherently bad, it can become questionable if we start to become easily irritated or act differently when things don’t go our way.
“If that ever takes you into something you wouldn’t do normally as an individual, that should give you pause to stop and think, ‘Should I be doing this?’” Trudeau said. “...I think that if belonging and adhering and doing these kinds of traditional things makes (you) lose sight of (yourself) and what’s important to (you), that’s what you should be looking out for.”
Behaviors that wouldn’t be okay otherwise should make us pause and think.
“I think that we shouldn’t do anything in the name of tradition that we wouldn’t be okay with a lot of other people knowing about,” Trudeau said.
We need to remember to model our actions after Jesus first and in every aspect of our lives.
Our Taylor traditions and cultures don’t sit outside of that ‘one-another’ attitude — they aren’t separate, Neel said.
It’s important to pour into the deeper relationship aspect of the Taylor community, Verhagen said.
“I think anytime we get so caught up in our own personal experience and fulfillment in an event, that can be problematic,” Verhagen said.
Instead, our traditions and attitudes should represent our faith commitments, Trudeau said.
So embrace the quirky, fun traditions at Taylor, but remember: our cultures and activities are not what define our community. Rather, it’s being bound in the relational beauty of Christ’s heart, and that doesn’t mean we need a tradition to do that.
Love one another intentionally, and love one another well.
