The other day, I was in the Biola library browsing when I decided to look up Biola’s yearbooks. Flipping through the yearbooks, I started with the early 1920s and moved onwards, when I was struck with the vivacity of the campus in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was amazing to see life pop from the pages.

Every page was full of students in their dorm rooms, goofing off, hanging out; every page held practical jokers, students enjoying each other’s company, students enjoying nature on campus … it all seemed so alive, so genuine, so real. It made me think about the campus today; it feels so dead.

Why? Is it really dead? Has the fun of life died within the campus? Have we lost the ability to function as a genuinely lively whole?

Reflecting on our campus today, I see so much potential for the cure to our ailment, primarily in people. I see an interesting mix of people everywhere I go on campus.

There are art majors setting up installations across campus, bringing the surreal to reality. There are students studying at the fountain, there are people on Stewart’s front balcony busting out the harmonica, banjo and guitar to provide us with melodious notes to carry us through our day.

There are the lobby rats of every dorm bringing color in many hues to every lobby. There is the underground theatre major producing those eccentric characters rehearsing all of their lines on their way to class or dinner, the voice majors constantly singing, and the music majors constantly humming a scale of some complex mode and degree.

We have students rushing to and fro, trying to get that research paper finished, turned in, and out of their hands. We have a myriad of personalities on campus, countless hobbies that float around, fads that stick and fads that fade: somehow, the razor scooters have remained. The personality we comprise has great potential for success, but somehow it seems repressed.

With so many outlets on campus — the Eddy, the art gallery, the library, the clubs, the prayer chapel, Singspiration, After Dark, Mock Rock, sports games — there are many ways to get involved on campus. But the liveliness of a campus depends on much more than all of this; it depends greatly on what we attribute to our campus on our own. It means people honestly caring for one another, interacting with classmates and getting to know each other inside and outside of classes, embracing differences, breaking down the walls of insecurity and making others feel comfortable enough to break down those walls.

Being daring enough to break out of the norms and have fun, roll down a hill, make a friend, play an instrument you know nothing about and play it near the mailboxes where everyone can hear, find a book that is interesting, read it, and tell everyone you meet about it.

Be an individual, be genuine, open-minded, and live life in the spirit of fun and love. Peace.