#BearsOfBaylor — “I say ‘y’all’ a lot more often than I ever thought I would.”

“My mom is a breast cancer survivor, and my dad recently finished up treatment for stage IV throat cancer; he’s on the road to recovery. Through friends, family and everything else that I had to rely on — help and donations from friends, family, everything like that — being able to see my parents get through the treatment successfully and still have them in my life to this point is a blessing, and I am extremely happy to still have them in my life.

“I’m from Chicago. I thought being from out-of-state [at Baylor] was going to be extremely difficult, because I thought everyone was going to be from Texas and I wasn’t going to be able to connect with anyone that was from my area. But the transition was seamless, I absolutely loved it. There’s a slight part of me that’s now Texan; I say ‘y’all’ a lot more often than I ever thought I would. But everyone here was so friendly and welcoming, I didn’t even feel like I needed to try to meet people. And now that I’m here, I’ve been here for three years now, I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.”

[Every Baylor Bear has a story; #BearsOfBaylor brings those stories to you, one by one. These stories, these people… This is our Baylor.]