Someone Has to Care

David Witze

Iam about to graduate.

The entry class of 2019 was the last one before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were the last to experience a truly “normal” pre-pandemic fall semester. I have spent four years at TWU now, trying to soak up the typical college experience and all that it entails.

I was not involved in anything in my first year. I was too scared to make any big moves because I was worried about making mistakes while trying to figure everything out. I eventually volunteered to help run sound for chapel, but that was a mostly solitary experience. I joined no clubs, went to no events, and generally spent most of my time just trying to survive. The COVID-19 pandemic changed many things, and I found myself regretting the self-imposed solitude of my first year. I found out through hard experience that the only way to truly become connected is to care.

I needed to care enough to show up to club events, say hello to people when I saw them, and volunteer for things. It went against my natural impulse to simply disappear into the background, but it truly works. The best part is that I found I did not need to care all that much. Before joining the Mars’ Hill team, I was a casual reader of the paper; I had written a few articles out of an interest in writing rather than some calling to be a journalist. I applied for my position simply because I thought I might be able to do it. I only cared enough to fill out what I thought to be an overly long application. Yet that was enough. platitude about making friends or connecting. Especially at TWU, we extol the virtue of being in a close community, but we never tell people how to create a community. We are told that TWU is different because of its community while ignoring the truth that community comes from people rather than a place. The way to community, to connection, and to long lasting bonds is to care. It is to watch your friends perform on jazz nights, accept invitations to events (even when they start at 10 p.m.), and to care just an iota about something. It is not always better nor does it magically make life less lonely, but it does make life just a little more worthwhile. The worst thing we can do is go from class to class and job to job without caring about anything.

The true crux of the matter is that someone needs to care. If there is no one to care about the paper or the club or the event, it all falls apart. Someone has to keep things going to establish those connections. The best and most beautiful thing about our university experience is that nothing is truly inevitable—except perhaps foundations courses. We can choose to change our major, to take a gap year, to attend for 10 years, or to eat ramen for every meal. Yet the best thing we can choose to do is to care.

The thought of “yeah, I could probably do this” was imminently more powerful to me than any sort of